aPPLieO  RGLIGIOUS 
■  PSYCHOLOGY 


jawesB.anDeRson 


A__ 


BR  110  .A6  1919 
Anderson,  James 


Burns,  1889 


Applied  religious  psychology 


An 


APPLIED   RELIGIOUS 
PSYCHOLOGY 


BY 


JAMES  B.  ANDERSON,  A.M. 

Professor  of  Philosophy  in 
Hastings  College 


!fARTIetV6RITAn1 


BOSTON 

RICHARD    G.  BADGER 

THE    GORHAM    PRESS 


COPYEIGHT,  I919,  BY  RiCHAKD   G.  BaDGER 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Made  in  the  United  States  of  America 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U.  S.  A. 


THIS    WORK   IS    DEDICATED 
TO   MY   PARENTS 

Reverend  and  Mrs.  J.  P.  Anderson 

WHOSE    LIVES    ARE    BEING   SPENT 
IN   HIS    SERVICE 


PREFACE 

IN  dealing  with  topics  of  this  character  it  should 
be  remembered  that  psychology  is  tentative 
in  many  of  its  views.  No  one  claims  that  it  is 
final  nor  that  the  position  which  it  takes  on  many 
points  is  unassailable.  As  a  science  it  deals  only 
with  human  consciousness  and  in  considering  sub- 
jects of  this  character  it  leaves  a  vast  field  un- 
touched. It  makes  no  attempt  to  express  itself 
with  reference  to  the  conditions  and  factors  of 
the  mind  as  separate  from  the  physical  body.  It 
deals  only  with  the  mind  as  it  exists  in  connection 
with  a  neural  basis.  It  has  no  expression  to  give 
regarding  the  Divine  except  as  human  conscious- 
ness conceives  of  it.  Any  question  of  this  sort  is 
beyond  its  field.  This  is  the  territory  of  the  Phi- 
losophy of  Religion.  While  these  limitations  of 
psychology  must  be  constantly  kept  in  mind  this 
does  not  destroy  the  fact  that,  as  it  is  the  science 
of  consciousness,  it  is  capable  of  throwing  the 
searchlight  on  many  a  phenomenon  of  religion 
which  before  has  been  cloudy  and  vague.  Altho 
there  are  many  facts  in  religious  consciousness 
which  it  clarifies,  we  must  continually  bear  in  mind 

5 


6  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

that  there  is  a  realm  beyond  its  sphere  which  is 
still  unexplainable  and  mystical. 

The  purpose  of  this  dissertation  is  to  attempt 
to  mention  some  of  the  psychological  truths  with 
reference  to  their  religious  application.  We  shall 
not  follow  the  usual  course  of  a  discussion  of  the 
Psychology  of  Religion  but,  nevertheless,  will  men- 
tion many  points  which  come  under  that  field  of 
consideration.  We  shall  attempt  to  be  practical 
and  non-technical  in  presentation,  brief  and  direct 
in  approach  and  at  the  same  time  we  desire  that 
the  reader  shall  find  the  work  not  only  interest- 
ing but  helpful. 

James  B.  Anderson. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Psychology  of  Temptation   ...  ii 

II.  Psychology  of  Prayer 21 

III.  Psychology  of  Sin 28 

IV.  Psychology  of  Evangelism   ...  34 
V.  Psychology  of  Conversion   ...  41 

VI.  Psychology  of  Worship 50 

VIL  Psychology  of  Ideals 56 

VIII.  Psychology  of  Success 62 

IX.  Psychology  of  Faith 68 


APPLIED  RELIGIOUS  PSYCHOLOGY 


APPLIED    RELIGIOUS 
PSYCHOLOGY 

CHAPTER  I 

PSYCHOLOGY   OF   TEMPTATION 

TEMPTATION  In  its  working  principles 
follows  much  the  same  general  laws  as  we 
find  prevailing  in  other  phases  of  mental  life.  In 
stating  certain  fundamentals  which  will  aid  in 
meeting  and  conquering  a  suggestion  or  situation 
which  is  wrong  in  the  religious  sense  we  find  the 
same  principles  applicable  also  In  the  case  of  a 
business  man  who  would  eradicate  a  certain  prac- 
tice which  he  believes  Is  destroying  his  patronage. 
The  mental  machinery  is  much  the  same  in  either 
case,  the  material  only  being  different.  It  is  wor- 
thy of  note  that  Christ's  way  of  meeting  tempta- 
tion agrees  with  that  suggested  by  the  science  of 
psychology.  We,  of  to-day,  can  read  psychological 
truths  Into  His  temptation  and  manner  of  dealing 
with  the  questions  which  He  had  to  answer. 

II 


12  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

We  shall  attempt  to  point  out  five  principles 
each  of  them  as  valid  to-day  as  in  the  First  Cen- 
tury because  each  is  built  on  a  fundamental  char- 
acteristic of  consciousness.  The  adoption  of  these 
suggestions  which  psychology  has  to  offer  will 
greatly  increase  the  chances  of  success. 

The  first  suggestion  is  to  resist  immediately. 
If  one  should  discover  that  there  was  poison  in 
the  body  which  had  been  taken  by  mistake,  time 
would  be  considered  precious.  An  antidote  would 
be  discovered  and  given  as  quickly  as  possible. 
The  reason  is  that  the  poison  works  on  the  tis- 
sues of  the  body  and  its  disastrous  effect  is  known. 
The  same  is  true  of  thot  even  tho  we  do  not  often 
realize  it.  Thot  works  on  the  neurones  of  the 
brain  just  as  definitely  as  poison  works  on  the 
tissues  of  the  body.  Just  because  thot  is  subtle 
and  its  physical  effects  are  not  as  easily  seen  does 
not  deny  the  fact.  Consciousness  leaves  its  path 
on  the  brain  just  as  definitely  as  a  pencil  leaves 
its  mark  on  a  sheet  of  paper. 

We  often  attempt  a  compromise,  we  often  dally 
with  thots  when  we  know  they  are  wrong.  Both 
of  these  practices  are  dangerous  and  liable  to 
lead  to  disastrous  results.  In  many  instances  we 
do  what  we  want  to  and  fix  the  reason,  excuse  it 
should  be  termed,  up  afterwards.  These  practices 
are  weak  and  inconsistent  and  eventually  lead  to 
the  destruction  of  all  that  is  good  in  personality. 


Psychology  of   Temptation  13 

The  second  suggestion  In  the  meeting  of  temp- 
tation is  to  resist  not  directly  but  indirectly.  That 
is,  do  not  fight  the  thot  which  you  recognize  is 
leading  you  off  directly  by  saying,  I  will  not  do 
so  and  so,  but  resist  by  substitution.  A  child  was 
once  attracted  by  the  color  of  a  flower  and  at- 
tempted to  pull  it.  The  mother  said,  "Don't  pull 
that  flower,"  and  kept  repeating  the  command  but 
the  child  persisted.  Another  lady  sitting  near 
made  a  suggestion  which  remedied  the  difficulty. 
She  noticed  a  ball  with  bright  colors  which  the 
child  had  not  seen  and  brought  this  into  his  con- 
sciousness, and  when  this  was  done  the  temptation 
to  pull  the  rose  was  gone.  Putting  ''nof'  in  front 
of  a  word  does  not  change  the  focus  of  conscious- 
ness suflliciently.  We  say,  "I  will  not  steal,"  but 
the  focus  is  not  shifted  as  it  is  if  we  say,  "I  will 
pay  my  debts."  Imagine  a  creamery  called.  The 
Not  Impure  Creamery.  Another  situation  which 
should  be  recognized  is  that  the  positive  seems 
to  make  a  stronger  appeal  mentally  than  the  nega- 
tive. In  temptation  we  should  not  stop  on  the 
critical  point  but  transform  it  by  passing  to  a 
higher  level  and  the  temptation  will  have  ceased. 
The  longer  we  hold  a  thot  in  mind  the  greater  the 
liability  of  Its  being  recalled  at  some  future  time. 
Also  the  more  likelihood  that  it  will  terminate  in 
action.  Dr.  Van  Dyke  says,  "The  best  rose  bush 
is  not  that  which  bears  the  fewest  thorns  but  that 


14  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

which  bears  the  finest  roses."  Some  Christians 
concentrate  their  minds  on  keeping  back  the 
thorns  and  their  roses  never  mature.  Some  peo- 
ple think  of  what  they  are  not  going  to  do  so 
much  that  what  they  can  do  never  gets  into  con- 
sciousness. Christ  met  His  temptation  by  quot- 
ing Scripture  which  presented  a  high  plane  of 
thot  and  led  His  mind  away  from  the  lower  level 
which  had  been  suggested. 

A  third  principle  might  be  expressed  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner:  "In  times  of  peace  prepare  for 
war."  We  see  a  very  apt  illustration  of  this  in 
the  temptation  of  Christ.  In  the  quiet  years  spent 
in  Nazareth  when  we  are  inclined  to  think  He 
did  nothing  because  we  have  no  records  of  His 
activity,  one  pursuit  which  must  have  been  fol- 
lowed very  diligently  was  that  of  studying  the 
Scriptures.  In  His  temptation  we  find  evidence 
that  His  mind  was  a  storehouse  of  information. 
Scripture  is  not  the  only  antidote  for  sin  but  it  is 
the  best  because  it  presents  a  high  level  of  thot 
and  we  are  thereby  drawn  further  from  the  view- 
point of  sin.  Any  hobby  which  makes  an  appeal 
to  the  individual  may  also  be  used-mechanics, 
sports,  music,  mathematics  and  the  like,  depend- 
ing upon  the  interests  of  the  individual.  The  main 
prerequisite  is  that  the  mind  shall  have  ready  an 
attractive  line  of  thot  which  has  little  or  no  con- 
nection with  the  thot  from  which  we  are  trying  to 


Psychology   of   Temptation  15 

escape.  Germany's  terrific  onslaughts  against  the 
Allies  during  the  earlier  part  of  the  war  seemed 
one-sided.  This  was  due  to  the  fact  that  Ger- 
many had  spent  years  in  preparation  while  her 
enemies  were  lacking  in  this.  So  the  mind  which 
in  times  of  peace  is  filled  with  ideals  and  thots  of 
the  right  sort  is  prepared  for  a  struggle  when  it 
comes.  This  principle  is  related  to  the  psychology 
of  memory  systems  which  is  that  the  individual 
have  as  many  associations  as  possible  with  the 
fact  he  wishes  to  be  able  to  recall,  thus  strength- 
ening memory.  So  a  thot  to  be  kept  in  conscious- 
ness must  have  a  number  of  associations  grouped 
around  it.  These  should  find  a  personal  setting  in 
the  experience  of  the  individual  himself. 

We  make  a  mistake  often  in  thinking  we  fail 
or  succeed  in  resisting  the  temptation  at  the  time 
it  occurs.  Christ  succeeded  on  the  Cross  because 
He  was  a  victor  in  Gethsemane.  Every  physical 
cross  is  preceded  by  a  mental  cross  and  this  is  the 
critical  point.  A  man  walks  down  the  street  and 
upon  meeting  another  man  pulls  a  gun  and  kills 
him.  This  is  the  physical  act  of  murder  but  it 
was  preceded  by  a  series  of  mental  pictures;  these 
having  started  with  some  thot  and  associations 
having  been  gradually  built  up  around  it.  This 
mental  phenomenon  which  came  first  was  the  real 
cause.  Our  trains  of  mental  thot  are  so  subtle 
that  we  minimize  them  in  comparison  with  the 


1 6  Applied  Religions  Psychology 

physical  but  the  mental  is  the  vital.  This  is  a 
fundamental  of  Psychology. 

A  fourth  principle  relates  to  the  condition  of 
the  physical  body.  Psychology  has  proven  in 
many  and  varied  situations  the  intimate  connec- 
tion which  exists  between  the  mental  and  the 
physical.  In  some  instances  the  mental  will  af- 
fect the  physical,  for  example,  if  one  is  angry 
with  another  and  eats  a  meal  there  is  Httle  doubt 
but  that  the  secretions  of  the  digestive  organs  are 
thrown  out  of  balance  and  a  disturbed  physical 
condition  is  the  result.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the 
food  one  has  taken  is  such  as  to  cause  maldiges- 
tion it  will  tend  to  affect  the  mental.  Many  a 
doubt  or  discouragement  is  due  to  a  physical 
cause.  We  are  more  likely  to  fail  in  temptation 
if  our  bodies  are  in  a  depleted  physical  condition. 
Saturday  nights  present  a  series  of  tragedies  in 
temptations  not  overcome  and  one  of  the  reasons 
for  this  Is  the  unusual  condition  of  fatigue  coupled 
with  the  let-down  feeling  which  comes  with  the 
realization  that  the  week's  work  is  done.  A  ma- 
chine if  it  is  liable  to  be  subjected  to  an  extra 
strain,  should  be  put  in  a  first-class  condition.  So 
the  mind,  if  it  is  to  withstand  temptation  with 
the  highest  efficiency  possible,  must  be  supported 
by  a  healthy,  powerful  body. 

The  fifth  instance  is  a  recognition  of  the  men- 
tal steps  In  a  fall  or  an  uplift.    The  steps  are  the 


Psychology  of  Temptation  17 

same,  the  outcome  being  determined  by  the  con- 
tent of  the  mind.  The  steps  as  they  have  been 
given  are :  a  look,  a  picture,  a  fascination,  a  fall, 
or,  a  look,  a  picture,  a  fascination  and  an  uplift.  A 
look  consists  in  the  thot  entering  the  mind;  it  may 
have  been  presented  by  any  of  the  various  means 
of  communication.  A  picture  is  this  look  sur- 
rounded by  associations  and  amplified  from  the 
personal  experience  of  the  individual.  This  pro- 
cess requires  that  the  look  shall  be  harbored  in 
consciousness  and  in  some  cases  it  may  take  con- 
siderable time  for  the  construction  of  the  picture. 
Before  long  our  minds  get  to  the  condition  where 
we  like  to  play  with  this  mental  picture.  And 
when  we  reach  this  we  are  passing  to  the  third 
stage  which  is  that  of  fascination.  This  stage  is 
more  highly  colored  by  an  emotional  condition 
of  mind  and  it  soon  reaches  the  point  of  develop- 
ment where  we  feel  that  the  picture  has  a  pulling 
power  and  finally  that  we  are  slaves  to  it.  From 
this  point  it  is  only  a  short  distance  until  we  come 
to  the  fourth  stage  which  is  a  fall  or  an  uplift. 
By  this  time  the  picture  which  was  mental  has 
been  transformed  into  motor  terms  and  the  act 
has  been  committed. 

Two  facts  should  be  remembered  in  the  four 
processes  which  have  just  been  described.  First, 
they  all  take  place  in  the  mind  of  the  individual. 
The  look  has  a  slight  sensory  basis  but  its  recep- 


1 8  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

tion  into  the  mind  depends  on  the  "set"  or  the 
general  attitude  assumed  by  the  person  himself. 
The  picture  is  altogether  associational  or  mental 
as  well  as  the  fascination.  Both  of  these  have  a 
coloring  peculiar  to  the  individual's  own  interests 
and  experiences.  The  fall  or  uplift  is  partly 
mental  and  partly  motor  or  actional  but  it  is  es- 
sentially mental  as  we  know  a  motor  action  of  this 
type  cannot  appear  without  a  conscious  basis  at 
one  time  or  another. 

These  four  steps  might  be  outHned  in  different 
terms.  We  could  speak  of  them  as  first,  sensa- 
tional; second,  associational;  third,  emotional; 
and  fourth,  motor.  We  are  only  partly  respon- 
sible for  the  sensational,  that  is,  we  cannot  keep 
all  evil  thots  or  impressions  out  of  the  mind  but 
we  are  responsible  for  harboring  them.  And  we 
are  most  certainly  responsible  for  the  associa- 
tional, emotional  and  motor  states  of  conscious- 
ness. The  safest  place  to  stop  the  line  of  thot 
which  is  wrong  is  between  the  look  and  the  picture 
or  between  the  sensational  and  the  associational. 
If  we  let  It  go  beyond  this  we  put  ourselves  in  a 
dangerous  condition  which  is  very  likely  to  ter- 
minate in  downfall. 

Temptation  is  more  mental  than  we  are  often 
led  to  suppose.  But  the  mental  background,  as 
it  is  often  called,  of  action  is  coming  to  receive 
more  emphasis  as  psychology  becomes  more  defi- 


Psychology  of  Temptation  19 

nite  in  its  inquiries  and  results.  The  development 
of  religion,  also,  has  perhaps  thru  another  ave- 
nue of  approach,  arriv^ed  at  much  the  same  con- 
clusions. The  topics  of  sermons  in  earlier  years 
were  directed  more  along  the  physical  and  motor 
basis  of  Christianity  while  those  of  more  recent 
years  place  a  greater  emphasis  on  the  mental 
which  we  now  recognize  precedes  the  motor. 
Many  questions  which  were  formerly  looked  on 
as,  in  the  main,  physical,  we  find  to-day  are  funda- 
mentally mental.  It  is  of  course  natural  that  we 
should  see  the  physical  first  but  that  is  no  reason 
why  we  should  stop  there  when  the  mental  ap- 
pears. If  we  recognize  and  develop  the  mental, 
we  will  thereby  govern  the  physical  which  is  sub- 
ordinate. 

In  addition  to  the  recognition  that  temptation 
is  essentially  mental,  another  factor  should  be  re- 
membered, namely,  that  the  mental  process  is  one 
whose  development  is  slow.  Often  we  are  not 
conscious  of  any  change  unless  some  unusual  situa- 
tion or  experience  serves  as  a  check  causing  us  to 
compare  a  previous  mental  state  with  the  present. 
This  applies  to  thots  of  a  lower  as  well  as  of  a 
higher  character.  To  illustrate,  a  boy  comes 
home  from  school  and  is  asked  what  he  has 
learned  to-day  and  he  answers,  "Nothing."  Day 
after  day  he  might  feel  like  giving  the  same  an- 
swer.    But  some  situation  recalls  his  condition  a 


20  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

year  ago  and  brings  out  a  comparison  with  that  of 
to-day  and  he  realizes  that  great  progress  has 
been  made.  These  changes  are  so  slow  that  we 
often  fail  to  realize  that  they  take  place.  If  we 
would  only  recognize  the  power  of  the  mind  in 
the  formation  of  personality  we  would  realize 
that 

"We  men  of  earth  have  here 

The  stuff  of  Paradise. 
We  need  no  other  thing 

To  build  the  stairs  into  the  unfilled. 
No  other  ivory  for  the  doors, 

No  other  marble  for  the  floors, 
No  other  cedar  for  the  beam  and  dome 

Of  man's  immortal  dream. 
Here  on  the  paths  of  every  day 

Here  on  the  common  human  way 
Is  all  the  busy  gods  would  take 

To  make  New  Edens. 
Ours  the  stuff  sublime 

To  build  eternity  In  time." 


CHAPTER  II 

PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PRAYER 

THE  question  of  whether  thot  can  be  trans- 
ferred from  one  mind  to  another  without 
the  means  of  conversation  or  signs  of  some  sort 
Is  a  question  on  which  psychology  has  as  yet  no 
answer  to  give.  This  question  of  mental  telep- 
athy has  been  experimented  with  In  a  meagre  and 
unsatisfactory  way.  The  test  was  made  on  num- 
bers and  thots  such  as  these  are  not  so  likely  to 
be  transferred  as  those  which  have  an  emotional 
background.  The  experiments  up  to  the  present 
cover  a  very  narrow  field,  especially  for  such  a 
mental  phenomenon,  hence  their  results  must  be 
looked  upon  as  uncertain.  Again,  when  we  con- 
sider the  vagueness  of  our  knowledge  regarding 
emotions  together  with  the  difficulty  of  creating 
emotions  In  such  a  setting  as  a  laboratory,  we  see 
additional  reasons  why  a  conclusion  cannot  as  yet 
be  given.  Psychology  In  its  present  state  dare 
not  say  that  transfer  of  this  sort  Is  impossible  be- 
cause it  has  as  yet  no  positive  answer  to  give. 
Considered  from  the  standpoint  of  individual 

21 


22  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

consciousness,  prayer  is  valuable  in  four  ways 
which  we  shall  attempt  to  develop.  All  of  these 
facts  have  been  proven  many  times  in  a  scientific 
way.  Each  expresses  a  cardinal  religious  belief 
found  in  the  doctrines  of  all  Christian  churches. 
We  shall  attempt  to  express  these  principles  in 
their  psychological  settings. 

In  the  first  place,  prayer  is  non-egotistical.  In 
real  prayer  the  mind  of  the  individual  is  in  a  so- 
cial atmosphere.  The  thots  are  stated  largely  in 
terms  of  social  consciousness.  The  individual 
may  be  thinking  of  himself  but  the  emphasis  is  on 
the  fact  that  he  is  a  member  of  a  group  which  is 
composed  of  many  individuals  of  much  the  same 
mental  tendencies.  In  other  words  the  focus  of 
consciousness  is  largely  outside  the  person  him- 
self. His  thots  are  not  wholly  self-centered.  An 
experiment  in  psychology  verifies  the  value  of  this 
mental  attitude.  Every  one  realizes  it  from  the 
experiences  of  everyday  living.  In  the  target  ex- 
periment where  the  individual  has  a  small  hand 
arrow  and  aims  at  a  target,  the  effect  of  the  thot 
in  the  mind  at  the  time  of  acting  has  been  studied 
carefully.  The  phase  of  the  experiment  in  which 
we  are  interested  is  the  difference  in  the  accuracy 
and  ease  of  control  of  movement  when  conscious- 
ness is  centered,  first,  on  the  individual's  own  body 
and,  second,  when  the  direction  of  thot  is  outside 
the  body  of  the  subject.    In  the  first  instance,  thot 


Psychology  of  Prayer  23 

is  concentrated  on  the  feeling  of  movement  in  the 
arm  or  the  feeling  of  the  arrow  as  it  leaves  the 
hand,  compared  with  the  second,  where  the  mind 
is  directed  to  the  arrow  flying  thru  space  and  hit- 
ting the  target.  In  the  latter  there  is  no  thot  con- 
nected with  the  individual;  it  is  altogether  outside 
himself.  In  other  words  it  might  be  termed  non- 
egotistical.  Greater  accuracy  was  attained  in  the 
second  instance.  As  far  as  the  picture  of  the  ar- 
row is  concerned  another  person  might  have 
thrown  it  as  the  thot  is  not  on  who  threw  it. 
This  shows  the  fact  that  anything  which  takes  the 
mind  away  from  a  state  of  consciousness  which  is 
self-centered  in  a  narrow  sense  is  an  advantage. 
And  prayer  does  this  in  a  way  which  nothing  else 
could  because  it  brings  us  into  relation  with  God, 
the  Infinite.  This  thot  will  be  further  developed 
in  the  consideration  of  the  fourth  point.  We  real- 
ize from  our  own  experience  the  value  of  a  mind 
centered  on  accomplishing  a  task  and  forgetful 
entirely  of  self  as  is  expressed  in  the  case  of  a 
man  lost  in  his  work.  Contrasted  with  this,  we 
have  the  individual  who  is  always  thinking  of 
himself,  the  tasks  to  be  accomplished  taking  a  sec- 
ondary place.  We  know  that  the  former  is  al- 
ways the  more  efficient.  So  prayer  is  of  value  be- 
cause it  takes  the  mind  which  is  prone  to  wander 
in  the  narrow  fields  of  egoism,  which  are  barren 
and  unfruitful,  and  leads  it  into  the  wider  and 


24  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

greener  pastures  of  an  enlarged  social  conscious- 
ness. 

In  the  second  place,  prayer  enlarges  social  con- 
sciousness. Imagine,  if  you  can,  the  Lord's  prayer 
with  all  the  pronouns  in  the  singular — "My  Fath- 
er who  art  in  heaven,"  et  cetera.  The  Father- 
hood of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man  are  not 
only  Inseparable  fundamentals  of  Christianity  but 
also  foundations  for  real  prayer  because  of  the  in- 
stinctive psychical  characteristics  of  the  human 
mind.  It  is  social  In  its  basic  principles  and 
prayer  not  only  expresses  this  inherent  tendency 
but  develops  and  enlarges  It.  Prayer  Is  an  in- 
valuable aid  in  developing  the  larger  qualities  of 
the  social  mind.  Imagine  a  pseudo-baby  born  on 
an  island,  cared  for  In  some  mysterious  way  and 
reaching  the  age  of  thirty  without  having  seen 
another  person;  never  having  had  the  opportunity 
of  helping  another  individual  and  never  having  re- 
ceived aid  from  any  one;  never  having  had  the 
privilege  of  working  with  another  and  never  hav- 
ing played  with  a  companion;  never  having  tasted 
of  the  joy  of  friendship  and  the  like.  We  might 
question  whether  consciousness  should  be  applied 
to  such  a  being  but  we  feel  sure  that  we  would 
not  dare  use  the  term  individual  as  we  conceive  of 
It.  The  highest  qualities  of  each  individual  mind 
are  cultivated  In  a  social  world. 

In  the  third  Instance,  prayer  is  an  expression 


Psychology  of  Prayer  25 

of  the  desires  of  the  Innermost  soul.  There  are 
three  distinct  advantages  that  come  from  this. 
Desire  Is  a  dream  or  vision  not  yet  reahzed  and 
the  continued  expression  of  it  makes  it  more  li- 
able to  result  In  a  reality.  The  focus  of  conscious- 
ness is  brought  on  it  over  and  over  again  and 
psychology  supports  a  principle  which  all  realize, 
namely,  that  thot  which  is  continually  coming  to 
the  mind  will  eventually  result  in  influencing  ac- 
tion. The  actions  of  one  period  are  largely  the 
reflections  of  the  thots  of  the  preceding  period. 
So  prayer  is  of  value  because  It  Is  a  means  of  ex- 
pressing the  highest  dreams  of  which  the  indi- 
vidual Is  capable,  thus  Increasing  the  probability 
of  making  them  come  true.  "The  thots  of  to-day 
become  the  deeds  of  to-morrow." 

The  second  advantage  is  that  in  prayer,  If  It  Is 
real  prayer,  we  express  desires  which  are  of  a 
worthy  order.  Therefore  the  lower  ones  are 
pushed  from  consciousness,  If  prayer  is  a  habit. 
This  Is  the  principle  of  substitution  Instead  of  pro- 
hibition. We  need  only  mention  the  point  here 
since  It  was  developed  In  the  discussion  regarding 
temptation. 

The  third  advantage  is  that  expression  Is  the 
law  of  growth  In  the  mental  and  spiritual  world. 
Prayer  is  a  means  of  expression  and  at  the  same 
time  it  results  in  the  clarification  of  the  ideas  ex- 
pressed.   One  Individual  explains  to  another  how 


26  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

to  solve  a  problem  and  it  results  in  clearing  his 
own  difficulties  as  well  as  making  his  own  knowl- 
edge more  certain.  In  the  material  world,  we 
lose  by  giving  and  gain  by  getting  but  the  opposite 
is  true  in  the  mental  and  spiritual.  To  illustrate, 
a  man  has  a  thousand  dollars  and  decides  to  give 
one  half  of  it  to  a  friend.  After  this  he  has  less 
than  he  had  before.  In  contrast,  a  man  helps  his 
friend  in  a  mental  and  spiritual  way  by  aiding  him 
in  removing  a  difficulty  which  was  confusing  him 
— he  has  not  lost  anything  mentally  by  rendering 
this  service  but  has  gained,  and  at  the  same  time 
he  has  helped  his  friend.  This  is,  in  one  sense  of 
the  word,  selfish  but  the  focus  must  be  kept  on  the 
social  if  this  mental  state  is  to  continue.  If  it  is 
selfish,  it  is  certainly  more  to  be  desired  than  the 
narrow  form  of  egoism  where  no  consideration  is 
given  the  social  world  except  as  it  will  be  an  ad- 
vantage to  the  thinker.  Shakespeare  expresses 
this  truth  very  aptly,  "To  thine  own  self  be  true, 
and  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day,  thou 
canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man."  Thine  own 
self  to  which  he  refers,  is  not  a  narrow  but  a  broad 
personality  moving  in  a  wide  social  atmosphere. 

In  the  fourth  instance,  prayer  brings  out  our 
relation  with  the  Infinite.  A  boy  walking  home 
from  school  with  a  room-mate  is  asked  what  he  is 
going  to  do  when  he  grows  up.  He  will  give  an 
answer  but  it  will  often  be  careless.     His  judg- 


Psychology  of  Prayer  27 

ment  will  not  be  exercised  to  any  extent  and  he 
may  even  contradict  himself.  Upon  going  home 
he  finds  that  his  father's  best  friend,  a  man  about 
whom  he  has  heard  a  great  deal,  is  there.  The 
boy  immediately  recalls  the  notable  things  which 
he  has  heard  of  this  man's  doing.  While  in  this 
mental  attitude  the  visitor  asks  him  what  he  is 
going  to  do  when  he  becomes  a  man.  We  find  his 
answer  is  very  different  from  the  reply  he  made 
to  his  schoolmate.  He  is  careful,  weighs  his  re- 
ply, and  in  a  measure  draws  power  from  the  one 
with  whom  he  is  talking.  So  it  is  in  prayer,  when 
we  talk  to  God  we  weigh  our  thots  before  express- 
ing them.  We,  also,  draw  power  and  new  life 
from  the  One  to  whom  we  are  talking.  If  this  is 
true  in  finite  friendships,  how  much  more  must  it 
be  true  with  reference  to  the  Infinite.  Prayer 
will,  as  long  as  we  are  finite,  have  a  mystic  and  pe- 
culiar emotional  atmosphere  because  we  are  deal- 
ing with  the  Infinite. 

In  conclusion,  prayer  is  of  value  because  it  is 
non-egotistical,  it  enlarges  our  social  conscious- 
ness, it  expresses  the  highest  desires  of  the  mind 
and  it  brings  out  our  relation  with  the  Infinite  and 
thus  increases  the  power  which  we  ourselves  pos- 
sess. 


CHAPTER  III 

PSYCHOLOGY   OF   SIN 

SIN  is  fundamentally  mental.  Its  origin  is  in 
the  psychic  life  of  the  individual.  This  fact 
has  been  mentioned  previously  in  dealing  with 
temptation.  It  may  be  expressed  in  a  different 
way  by  saying  that  sin  is  personal.  That  is,  sin 
is  not  the  same  for  all  individuals.  Two  per- 
sons may  commit  the  same  act  and  in  one  case 
it  may  be  sin  while  in  the  other  it  may  not  be.  Or 
two  acts  of  seemingly  the  same  character  may  be 
performed  by  the  same  individual,  these  being  sep- 
arated by  an  interval  of  time  and  again  we  would 
not  dare  to  say  that  they  were  sins  of  equal  rank. 
Mental  and  environmental  changes  may  have  hap- 
pened in  the  interval  which  cause  the  difference. 
The  first  may  be  a  sin  of  little  gravity  while  the 
latter  may  be,  with  what  has  happened  in  the  in- 
terval, a  sin  of  the  greatest  import.  An  indi- 
vidual who  has  not  been  subjected  to  an  environ- 
ment of  a  high  moral  type  may  engage  in  some 
business  acts  which  to  him  appear  right.  That 
same  individual  may  be  brot  under  a  higher  en- 

28 


Psychology   of  Sin  29 

vironment  and  under  this  condition  his  previous 
acts,  if  repeated,  would  be  sinful. 

Sin  may  be  accounted  for  partly  by  environment 
but  the  personality  of  the  individual  is  the  factor 
which  is  essential.  Some  individuals  tend  to 
reckon  all  sin  on  a  basis  of  the  surroundings  of 
the  individual.  This  seems  to  be  carrying  the 
point  to  an  extreme.  In  former  years  sufficient 
credit  may  not  have  been  given  to  the  environ- 
mental factors  but  we  have  a  tendency  to  believe 
at  present  that  these  are  not  the  only  causes.  If 
we  would  express  the  extreme  view  of  those  who 
overemphasize  environment  in  another  way  we 
would  be  compelled  to  state  that  character,  be  it 
good  or  bad,  is  the  mechanical  result  of  the  dif- 
ferent experiences  thru  which  the  individual  has 
passed.  Environment  no  doubt  has  a  potent  influ- 
ence in  the  building  of  the  mental  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual but  the  personality  of  the  individual  also 
plays  a  large  part  in  the  interpretation  of  the  en- 
vironment. We  see  ample  evidence  of  this  in 
two  persons  whose  surroundings  have  been  iden- 
tical as  far  as  the  physical  factors  are  concerned 
but  whose  mental  equipment  is  as  different  as  day 
is  from  night.  Another  factor  must  have  entered 
to  cause  the  difference.  We  call  this  personality. 
And  even  tho  we  are  unable  to  define  exactly  what 
it  is,  we  believe  it  exists.  Electricity  is  undefine- 
able  as  to  what  it  is  but  we  believe  that  it  exists. 


30  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

The  motive  or  motives  in  the  mind  are  the  real 
factors  to  be  considered  in  determining  sin.  If 
the  individual  has  not  acted  on  the  highest  motive 
of  which  he  is  capable  he  is  sinning,  and  the  fur- 
ther the  motive  is  removed  from  that  of  which 
he  is  capable  the  greater  the  sin.  The  range 
of  possible  motivation  will  vary  with  difference 
in  personality  as  well  as  with  the  varying  environ- 
ments in  which  the  individual  has  lived.  We  be- 
lieve that  a  person  is  not  only  responsible  for 
what  he  has  made  of  environmental  opportunities 
but  also  for  what  he  might  have  made  of  these. 
Two  individuals  may  have  lived  in  a  Christian 
atmosphere  and  it  may  influence  only  one  while 
the   other   is  impervious. 

An  act  usually  is  the  result  of  a  combination 
of  many  motives,  but  the  total  basis  of  motivation 
should  be  the  highest  of  which  the  individual  is 
capable.  To  illustrate,  the  difference  in  the  motive 
when  the  act  is  seemingly  the  same — a  blind  man 
seated  on  the  sidewalk  is  begging  for  help.  Two 
men  in  turn  pass  by  and  each  drops  a  quarter  in 
the  man's  hat.  Physically  they  have  performed  the 
same  act  but  mentally  we  cannot  say  that  they 
have  until  we  know  the  motive  which  was  the 
cause  of  the  action.  For  instance,  let  us  suppose 
that  the  first  man's  motive  was  to  help  the  beggar 
with  whom  he  sympathizes.  But  the  second  man, 
knowing  that  he  was  being  followed  by  a  certain 


Psychology  of  Sin  31 

Individual  with  whom  he  desired  to  raise  his 
standing  because  he  anticipates  asking  a  favor  of 
him  in  the  near  future,  gave  the  quarter  for  this 
reason  and  not  because  he  desired  to  help  the 
beggar.  Had  this  man  not  been  followed  by  his 
friend  of  whom  he  expected  to  ask  a  favor  he 
would  not  have  made  any  contribution.  The  mo- 
tive in  these  two  instances  was  very  different,  while 
the  physical  act  was  the  same  as  far  as  the  on- 
looker could  discern.  So  in  sin  the  motive  Is  the 
real  basis  for  Its  reckoning.  This  is  one  of  the 
reasons  why  It  Is  impossible  to  say  without  quali- 
fication that  a  man  has  done  right  or  wrong.  It 
is  also  one  of  the  reasons  why  we  cannot  judge 
another  man's  act.  We  can  only  say  he  seems  to 
have  acted  rightly  or  wrongly  because  we  think 
his  motive  was  so  and  so. 

If  sin  is  personal.  It  must  also  be  social.  That 
is,  it  must  be  related  to  society  as  seen  from  the 
standpoint  of  each  Indivlduars  own  consciousness. 
We  believe  in  the  organic  view  of  society  and  ac- 
cording to  it  the  individual  and  society  are  "not 
two  modes  of  existence  but  are  two  viewpoints  of 
a  unitary  existence."  This  means  that  we  must 
put  an  organic  Interpretation  on  our  consideration 
of  sin.  The  consciousness  of  the  individual  Is 
intricately  indebted  to  society  and  Its  sense  of 
right  and  wrong  cannot  be  separated  from  this 
foundation.    What  concept  of  sin  would  a  pseudo- 


32  Applied  Religions  Psychology 

individual,  who  had  never  come  in  contact  with 
another  person,  have?  He  might  have  the  ele- 
ment of  choice  which  would  call  for  a  decision  but 
his  mental  life  would  be  so  far  removed  from 
ours  that  we  could  not  conceive,  let  alone  appre- 
ciate, his  mental  basis  of  action. 

Sin  is  necessarily  connected  with  our  ideals  of 
life.  We  shall  develop  this  later  in  the  discus- 
sion of  the  psychology  of  ideals.  Suffice  it  at  this 
point  to  bear  out  the  relation  of  sin  to  the  ideals 
of  the  individual.  Suppose  the  ideal  of  the  first 
individual  Is  to  keep  out  of  jail,  the  ideal  of  a 
second  Is  to  pay  all  his  debts  and  live  honestly  in 
a  narrow  sense  of  the  word,  that  of  a  third  is  to 
serve  one's  fellowmen  in  a  limited  sense  of  the 
word,  that  of  a  fourth  is  the  Fatherhood  of  God 
and  the  brotherhood  of  men  in  the  widest  sense 
and  he  Is  attempting  to  make  this  come  true  in  all 
phases  of  life.  It  goes  without  saying  that  each 
of  these  will  have  a  different  mental  basis  for 
judging  sin.  Many  an  individual  attempts  to  jus- 
tify what  he  knows  is  sin  by  lowering  his  ideal  in 
life  just  for  the  moment  when  he  Is  considering 
the  question  of  right  and  wrong.  But  when  the 
question  of  sin  Is  dismissed  and  he  comes  to  com- 
pare his  ideals  with  those  of  another  person  he 
goes  back  again  to  the  highest  level  of  which  he  is 
capable.  A  spot  of  Ink  on  a  garment  may  be 
scarcely  noticeable  In  the  twilight  but  at  noonday  it 


Psychology  of  Sin  ,         33 

appears  extremely  black.  And  to  attain  the  great- 
est efficiency  of  which  one  is  capable,  one's  idea  of 
whether  an  act  is  sinful  or  not  should  be  measured 
by  the  highest  ideals  one  is  capable  of  reaching. 
Another  interesting  test  which  reveals  a  basic 
difference  is  the  attitude  of  the  individual  after 
he  has  committed  an  act  which,  in  the  light  of 
later  experiences,  appears  sinful.  At  the  time  of 
action  he  was  doing  right  but,  in  the  meantime  his 
ideals  having  been  raised  to  a  higher  level,  the  act 
now  appears  wrong.  If  in  this  situation  a  man 
tries  to  justify  his  action  with  unqualified  support 
he  is  not  doing  the  best  he  knows.  We  would  not 
contend  that  he  had  sinned  in  his  action  but  it 
would  be  sinful  if  he  was  to  attempt  to  justify 
that  which  was  formerly  right  but  in  the  deepest 
depths  of  his  mind  he  now  knows  is  wrong. 

In  summarizing,  the  following  quotation  ap- 
pears fitting: 

'Tor  from  within,  out  of  the  heart  of  men, 
evil  thots  proceed,  fornications,  thefts,  murders, 
adulteries,  covetings,  wickednesses,  deceit,  lascivi- 
ousness,  an  evil  eye,  railing,  pride,  foolishness: 
all  these  evil  things  proceed  from  within,  and  de- 
file the  man." 


CHAPTER  IV 

PSYCHOLOGY   OF    EVANGELISM 

WITH  reference  to  religion  we,  of  to-day, 
say  that  It  applies  to  the  development  of 
the  body,  mind  and  spirit.  We  do  not  realize 
that  this  respresents  the  growth  of  many  hun- 
dreds of  years.  In  the  15th  Century  it  was  con- 
ceived of  as  dealing  only  with  the  spirit.  At  a 
later  period,  we  find  the  mental  entering  while  in 
recent  years  the  physical  has  come  to  its  own. 
We  speak  of  them  to-day  as  intimately  related  but 
our  attitude  is  the  result  of  years  of  struggle  and 
growth.  The  same  is  true  of  evangelism.  The 
former  type  was  the  personal  or  direct.  In  this 
the  individual  was  approached  just  as  one  person 
would  meet  another  and  carry  on  a  conversation 
with  him.  The  later  type  keeps  this  direct  or  per- 
sonal method  but  adds  the  social  or  indirect  with 
it.  The  indirect  may  employ  a  conversation  with 
another  but  it  does  not  stop  there.  If  an  institu- 
tion is  believed  to  be  pulling  an  individual  down 
an  attempt  is  made  to  annihilate  this  and  thereby 
help  the  person  affected.     It  was  natural  that  the 

34 


Psychology  of  Evangelism  35 

narrower  type  should  come  first  but  that  is  no 
reason  why  we  should  stop  with  it.  A  man  in  a 
factory  learns  the  details  of  the  particular  proc- 
ess upon  which  he  is  to  work,  first,  but  that  is  no 
reason  why  he  should  not  learn  the  processes  re- 
lated to  his  upon  which  other  individuals  are 
working  and  which  together  make  up  the  com- 
plete product. 

The  broader  type  of  evangelism  was  not  used 
in  the  early  Christian  Church  for,  at  least,  two 
reasons.  In  the  first  place,  the  end  of  the  world 
was  conceived  of  as  being  near  and  this  led  them 
to  use  the  most  direct  method  possible.  In  the 
second  place,  social  institutions  were  not  so  numer- 
ous nor  so  potential  then  as  now\  Sin  was  more 
personal  and  sinning  by  syndicate  or  thru  an  or- 
ganization was  not  so  common.  We  remember 
hearing  a  speaker  say  that  the  only  mission  of  the 
Church  Is  to  convert  men  from  sin,  the  Church 
has  no  business  to  take  a  hand  in  a  political  or 
social  situation  even  w^hen  it  is  sapping  human 
vitality  and  thus  making  the  highest  expression  of 
the  religious  life  Impossible.  If  his  thot  Is  a 
worthy  criterion  of  his  philosophy  he  would  fit 
better  In  the  i6th  than  in  the  20th  Century. 

The  dynamic  for  the  broader  evangelism  finds 
its  foundation  in  the  teaching  of  Christ.  When 
He  cast  the  traders  out  of  the  Temple  He  was 
attacking  an  institution  which  was  pulling  human- 


2^  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

ity  down  and  at  the  same  time  misusing  the  Tem- 
ple which  was  erected  for  the  uplift  of  mankind. 
If  one  really  desires  to  see  people  saved  in  the 
deepest  sense  of  the  word  he  must  also  desire  to 
see  institutions  in  the  community  which  are  pulling 
humanity  away  from  salvation  crushed  and  sup- 
planted by  organizations  which  will  elevate  man- 
kind. 

The  way  to  get  people  out  of  the  mire  of  sin 
and  the  lower  ideals  of  life  is  to  point  out  higher 
ones,  but  this  is  not  all.  If  they  are  given  a  task 
of  helping  others  to  higher  ideals  we  may  be  more 
certain  that  their  own  will  also  be  raised.  This 
task  may  be  personal  or  impersonal,  it  may  be 
that  of  bringing  some  one  else  who  is  your  friend 
to  see  the  Christian  viewpoint,  or  it  may  be  the 
using  of  your  influence  in  bringing  about  the  re- 
moval of  some  institution  which  has  pulled  you 
down  as  well  as  your  friends.  The  church  too 
often  enrolls  people  as  members  and  stops  there, 
due  to  a  lack  of  appreciation  of  the  broader  type 
of  evangelism.  Social  evangelism  makes  a  strong 
appeal  to  thinking  men.  We  remember  a  man 
who  had  not  been  in  a  church  for  twenty  years. 
The  Church  in  his  city  undertook  an  application 
of  social  evangelism  and  it  was  not  long  until 
this  man  came  and  investigated  very  carefully 
what  was  being  done.  And  when  he  had  looked 
within  he  said,  "If  that  is  what  you  call  Christian- 


Psychology   of  Evangelism  37 

ity  I  want  to  be  a  part  of  it  and  help."  He  imme- 
diately went  to  the  pastor  and  said  that  he  desired 
to  join,  no  one  ever  having  asked  him  to  do  so. 
After  this,  he  went  to  the  treasurer  of  the  Church 
and  asked  what  three  men  who  had  been  life  mem- 
bers of  the  church  and  who  were  receiving  about 
the  same  salary  as  he  was,  were  in  the  habit  of 
giving.  When  told  what  the  amount  was  and  it 
was  not  small,  he  said,  "You  may  put  me  down  for 
the  same."  "If  the  Church  does  not  Christianize 
commerce,  commerce  will  commerciahze  the 
Church."  We  might  also  say  that  if  the  Church 
does  not  Christianize  society,  society  will  under- 
mine the  Church. 

Another  illustration  might  be  presented  show- 
ing the  sociological  value  of  the  broader  evangel- 
ism. A  boy  is  playing  in  the  backyard  and  a 
stream  flows  near  by  into  which  there  is  danger 
of  his  faUing.  The  father  exhorts  him  to  be  care- 
ful but  he  goes  farther.  He  builds  a  fence  along 
the  edge  of  the  water,  thus  minimizing  the  danger. 
A  neighbor  boy  comes  to  play  and  altho  he  has 
not  been  exhorted  regarding  the  danger  the  fence 
serves  to  keep  him  away  as  well.  This  fence  rep- 
resents the  doing  away  with  a  social  institution 
which  is  destructive  or  the  inauguration  of  one 
which  will  be  elevating.  There  is  no  mystical  ele- 
ment here  nor  is  there  in  the  broader  evangelism. 
"The  key  to  understanding  God's  dealings  thru 


38  Applied  Religions  Psychology 

the  ages  is  simply  a  universal  love  going  out  in  a 
redemptive  purpose."  If  God's  love  goes  out  to 
the  individual  seeking  to  elevate  him,  He  must  de- 
sire that  institutions  destructive  of  the  object  of 
his  love  should  be  eliminated. 

A  man  walking  along  the  street  kills  another. 
We  all  know  how  we  feel  toward  him.  An  em- 
ployer thru  an  institution  kills  another  by  not 
paying  a  living  wage.  Do  we  feel  the  same  to- 
ward him?  No.  It  is  due  to  the  fact  that  we 
look  upon  institutions  as  impersonal  and  also 
that  social  forces  work  more  gradually  and  in  a 
less  dramatic  way.  On  account  of  this  we  are 
liable  to  underestimate  or  overlook  them  alto- 
gether. Court  decisions  are  testimonies  of  this 
fact.  We  do  not  punish  an  institution  as  often 
nor  as  severely  as  an  individual  when  the  crime 
is  the  same.  What  is  your  attitude  as  a  Chris- 
tian toward  a  starving  man  whom  you  meet? 
What  is  your  attitude  toward  an  institution  which 
is  paying  a  starvation  wage?  It  is  not  enough  for 
the  Church  to  seek  to  enlist  and  help  the  starving; 
it  must  go  further  and  be  alert  for  the  institution 
which  is  causing  the  starvation. 

The  Church  that  has  not  assumed  the  habit  of 
social  responsibility,  that  is,  of  examining  the  con- 
ditions of  living,  studying  the  influence  of  institu- 
tions in  the  community,  has  no  right  to  call  itself 
a  Church  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word.    Christ 


Psychology   of  Evangelism  39 

did  not  treat  the  symptoms  of  mental  disease  but 
sought  by  a  longer  process  to  remove  the  germs 
that  were  causing  the  disease.  We  after  ages 
have  learned  the  value  of  the  preventative,  which 
is  the  social,  coupled  with  the  remedial,  which  is 
the  personal.  In  treating  contagious  diseases  the 
individual  having  the  disease  is  treated,  but  social 
treatment  is  also  applied  in  isolation  which  checks 
the  spread  of  the  disease. 

A  boy  frequents  a  gambling  den,  an  institution 
which  is  pulling  him  down.  The  individual  rem- 
edy is  to  counsel  the  boy  and  to  lead  him  away  to 
better  amusements,  to  turn  him  from  the  con- 
tamination of  evil  influence,  but  a  larger  remedy 
is,  in  addition  to  that  just  mentioned,  to  do  away 
with  the  den  of  vice  and  supplant  it  in  the  boy's 
mind  by  another  institution.  In  so  doing  you  not 
only  help  the  boy  who  has  been  going  but  you  also 
remove  the  possibility  of  the  boy  of  to-morrow 
going  as  well. 

The  broader  evangelism  demands  repentance 
and  faith.  Repentance  from  social  sin  and  faith 
in  the  possibility  of  a  new  order.  All  the  Chris- 
tian virtues  which  we  attach  to  the  individual  in 
postulating  a  goal  to  be  striven  for  should  be  at- 
tached to  the  organism  which  we  call  society. 
*'The  modern  emancipation  of  the  intellectual  life 
began  in  the  Renaissance  and  is  not  finished  yet; 
the  birth  of  the  religious  life  began  in  the  Refor- 


40  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

matlon  and  is  not  finished  yet;  the  bringing  forth 
of  political  life  began  in  the  Puritan  Revolution 
and  is  not  finished  yet;  the  beginning  of  the  indus- 
trial life  occurred  in  the  19th  Century  and  is  not 
finished  yet;  the  modern  emancipation  of  the  so- 
cial direction  of  the  religious  spirit  has  just  begun" 
and  all  the  moral  power  generated  by  Christianity 
is  available  for  the  task  of  social  regeneration  if 
Christians  are  only  conscious  of  the  nature  of  the 
problem  which  is  before  them. 


CHAPTER  V 

PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION 

CONVERSION  as  far  as  the  psychological 
side  is  concerned  is  not  peculiar  to  religion 
but  is  found  in  all  phases  of  mental  life.     In  many 
instances  we  describe  it  by  other  terms  when  the 
mental  process  is  much  the  same.    A  business  man 
thru  new  and  larger  experiences  becomes  acquaint- 
ed  with   new    ideals    of   business.     He    ponders 
over  these  and  the  change  may  be  slow  or  quick, 
according  to  his  previous  state  of  mind  as  well  as 
the  ideals  presented.     After  a  time  he  reaches  a 
decision  and  thereafter  his  business  is  conducted 
in  a  very  different  manner.     He  has  been  con- 
verted, if  we  may  use  the  term,  in  business.     To 
illustrate  further,  a  student  has  certain  moral  prin- 
ciples which  we  will  call  xyz.    These  have  served 
as  guiding  stars  in  his  life  of  action  in  the  same 
manner  in  which  a  map  points  the  way  in  making 
a   journey.      But   experiences   cross  his   pathway 
which  bring  into  his  mind  principles  which  were 
unheard  of  before.    Let  us  call  these  mno.    These 
may  come  creeping  along  in  his  thot  until  they 

41 


42  Applied  Religions  Psychology 

force  their  way  Into  the  focus  of  consciousness  or 
they  may  come  so  suddenly  that  they  flash  over  his 
mind  In  an  Instant.  For  a  period,  It  may  be  short 
or  It  may  be  long,  xyz  and  mno  stand  one  against 
the  other.  After  a  period  of  conflict  the  victory 
comes  to  that  one  which  presents  from  his  per- 
sonal viewpoint  the  highest  Ideal.  To  continue 
the  Illustration,  let  us  say  after  a  period  of  Inde- 
cision mno  comes  out  In  his  mind  as  the  victor  over 
xyz.  He  has  adopted  a  new  guiding  principle 
and  from  that  point  on  his  moral  actions  are 
directed  by  a  different  map  of  life.  Also  the  aim 
of  his  action  has  been  changed  because  the  direc- 
tion of  his  consciousness  Is  different  than  before. 
In  other  words  the  Individual  has  been  converted. 
We  need  not  elaborate  this  point  further  but  reit- 
erate that  conversion,  as  far  as  the  mental  side  Is 
concerned,  Is  not  peculiar  to  religion  but  Is  found 
In  all  phases  of  psychical  activity. 

We  usually  think  of  conversion  as  occurring  but 
once  In  the  life  of  the  Individual.  In  a  sense  this 
is  true.  The  one  who  has  up  to  a  certain  point 
drifted  In  sin  and  worldllness  and  then  has 
brought  to  his  attention  the  truths  of  Christianity 
which  he  accepts  and  by  which  he,  from  that  mo- 
ment, seeks  to  direct  his  life,  cannot  and  should 
not  easily  forget  this  experience.  This  is  the  larg- 
est change  In  the  direction  of  consciousness  which 
occurs,  but  It  Is  not  the  only  one.   It  Is  what  might 


Psychology   of  Conversion  43 

be  termed  the  major  conversion,  but  in  the  life  of 
the  normal  individual  it  is  followed  by  other 
changes  which  might  be  called  minor  conversions. 
The  individual  has  been  wandering  in  the  mire  of 
the  lower  things  of  life  and  has  suddenly  come 
across  a  stairway  which  will  enable  him  to  raise 
himself  above  the  filth.  In  a  condition  of  this 
sort  he  naturally  puts  more  emphasis  in  his  own 
mind  on  the  first  step  just  as  the  first  pay  a  boy  re- 
ceives stands  out  in  the  limelight.  But  this  initial 
change  is  followed  by  others  which  lead  to  heights 
beyond.  True  conversion  is  not  an  elevator 
which  in  one  lift  transfers  a  man  from  sin  to  a 
position  in  a  high  moral  world,  but  it  is  a  series 
of  growths  or  a  stairway,  the  top  of  which  is 
always  distant.  All  that  is  needed  for  growth  is 
the  perception  of  the  next  step  above.  Other 
steps  will  appear  as  we  educate  ourselves  to  dis- 
cern them. 

Human  consciousness,  if  it  is  normal  must  be 
progressive.  Life  is  a  series  of  goals  which  ap- 
pear not  simultaneously  but  one  after  the  other. 
In  our  present  position  we  see  a  height  beyond, 
it  is  our  ideal.  But  when  we  reach  that  point  it 
seems  commonplace  and  we  see  that  it  was  only  a 
foothill.  Beyond,  we  see  a  mountain  which  be- 
comes our  new  aspiration.  We  undertake  again 
our  objective  and  so  we  go.  Ideals  realized 
become    ideas,    then   new   ideals    spring   up    and 


44  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

thus  the  endless  succession  continues.  Life  can 
be  supported  in  the  physical  body  by  much  the 
same  chemical  ingredients  of  food  day  by  day  but 
not  so  with  the  mind.  It  must  feast  on  new  pas^ 
tures:  its  line  of  thot  must  have  something  of  the 
unusual  in  it.  Therefore,  if  real  mentality  is  to 
continue,  it  follows  that  a  series  of  conversions 
under  ever  widening  circumstances  is  the  natural 
expression  of  the  mind. 

Conversion  must  be  personal.  That  is,  it  must 
have  a  mental  or  associational  basis  in  the  mind 
of  the  individual  himself.  If  conversion  is  real, 
it  must  be  his  conversion  in  the  sense  that  there 
are  certain  factors  in  it  which  he  alone  can  ap- 
preciate. One  person  may  imitate  another  in 
the  act  of  getting  up,  walking  to  the  front 
and  taking  the  hand  of  the  evangelist,  but  one 
person  cannot  follow  another  in  the  sense  that 
he  copies  his  associational  setting  and  attempts 
to  make  it  his  own.  One  individual  m.ay  listen 
to  the  explanation  of  the  conversion  of  his  friend, 
but  his  own  will  be  different  in  certain  respects 
because  his  experience  has  been  different.  One 
may  hear  a  description  of  a  scene  in  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  accept  it  mentally,  but  it  never  be- 
comes a  vital  part  of  his  consciousness  until  he 
has  had  some  personal  experience  relating  to  it 
himself.  It  is  the  same  with  reference  to  con- 
version. 


Psychology  of  Conversion  45 

We  have  different  types  of  conversions  because 
minds  are  not  of  one  kind  but  many.  Usually 
the  powers  of  the  mind  are  classed  as  three — 
knowing,  feeling  and  willing.  And  we  have  three 
types  of  conversion  according  as  the  emphasis  Is 
put  on  each  of  these  three  powers.  In  each  of 
these  kinds  the  other  two  powers  of  mind  are 
not  excluded  but  are  just  pushed  to  the  back- 
ground. The  first  type  emphasizes  knowing;  the 
intellectual  element  comes  to  the  front.  This  In- 
dividual has  a  tendency  to  analyze  and  ponder 
mentally  with  the  various  aspects  of  the  situa- 
tion. He  is  aided  only  as  thots  are  presented  to 
his  mind  which  make  a  logical  appeal  and  on 
this  ground  only  are  they  accepted  by  him.  Re- 
citing a  highly  emotional  situation  which  has  lit- 
tle of  the  logical  appeal  in  it,  to  him  is  like  throw- 
ing water  on  fire — It  deadens  his  tendency  to 
reach  a  conclusion.  This  type  of  individual  may 
be  converted  In  his  own  home  as  he  is  meditating 
by  himself  or  it  may  be  in  a  meeting,  but  the  con- 
dition causing  the  change  Is  the  same.  The  weight 
of  logical  evidence  has  been  accumulated  and  the 
scale  is  tipped  to  the  other  side,  his  decision  has 
been  reached. 

In  the  second  type  the  emphasis  is  on  the  emo- 
tional powers  of  the  mind.  Knowing  and  will- 
ing are  forced  to  a  secondary  position  and  In 
some   instances   seem   to   disappear.      This   type 


46  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

varies  from  one  extreme  in  which  the  intellectual 
and  emotional  seem  to  be  almost  equal.  It  is 
scarcely  discernible  which  is  in  the  foreground. 
On  the  other  extreme  we  find  seemingly  none  of 
the  intellectual  while  the  consciousness  of  feeling 
seems  to  occupy  the  entire  field.  Decision  is 
not  reached  in  this  second  type  by  the  same  course 
as  in  the  first;  the  method  used  is  pecuhar  to 
this  type  of  mind.  The  appeal  must  accord  some- 
what with  the  former  experience  of  the  individ- 
ual, that  is,  it  must  find  an  associational  setting 
in  his  own  mind  and  when  this  condition  is  ful- 
filled a  cord  seems  to  have  been  struck  which 
sympathetically  arouses  the  emotional  state  of 
mind.  In  making  the  appeal  we  usually  find  some 
instinctive  characteristic  of  the  mind  is  used  as 
a  foundation.  The  individual  cannot  relate  why 
he  has  reached  his  decision  by  giving  logical  rea- 
sons which  will  support  it  as  is  the  case  in  the 
first  type,  but  will  usually  recite  an  instance  or 
experience  and  then  follow  it  with  some  remark 
which  indicates  that  it  was  an  emotion  thus 
aroused  which  supports  his  position. 

The  third  type  depends  in  the  main  on  will  or 
action,  while  knowing  and  feeling  are  pushed  to 
secondary  positions.  The  manner  in  which  the 
appeal  is  made  in  this  instance  is  different  from 
the  two  just  mentioned.  An  emotional  situation 
makes  Httle  or  no  appeal,  a  series  of  logical  rea- 


Psychology  of  Conversion  47 

sons  in  the  main  passes  by  unheard.  The  at- 
tention of  this  individual  is  secured  by  stating 
some  practical  task  which  he  can  picture  in  his 
own  environment  and  which  he  himself  desires  to 
see  put  into  action.  In  this  third  type  knowing 
and  feeling  may  be  in  the  periphery  of  conscious- 
ness, but  the  focus  is  directed  to  the  action  which 
he  desires  to  see  accomplished  and  in  which  he 
wishes  to  have  a  part. 

The  ideal  situation  is  where  a  balance  is  main- 
tained between  these  three  powers  of  the  mind, 
knowing,  feeling  and  willing  being  united  in  an 
organic  decision  which  is  related  to  an  individ- 
ual basis  in  the  mind  of  each  person.  No  one  of 
these  powers  of  mind  can  exist  for  any  time  iso- 
lated, but  the  type  of  decision  which  overempha- 
sizes the  intellectual,  the  emotional  or  the  ac- 
tional is  lame  and  inefficient  when  compared  with 
that  which  maintains  a  balance.  The  ideal  is 
where  all  three  are  brought  into  play — difference 
being  allowed,  of  course,  for  individuality,  ex- 
perience and  the  like. 

The  experience  and  type  of  mind  also  cause 
differences  which  may  be  classified  in  another 
manner.  Some  minds  make  their  approach  from 
a  visual-descriptive,  others  from  a  motor-descrip- 
tive basis.  Both  of  these  deal  with  the  situa- 
tion much  as  one  would  view  a  series  of  pictures 
and  afterwards  describe  that  which  they  had  seen. 


48  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

The  emphasis  is  on  the  sensory  qualities  of  con- 
sciousness. A  second  group  is  the  motor  type. 
These  relate  personal  motives  and  situations  and 
connect  them  with  actions  which  they  themselves 
have  gone  thru  with  in  their  own  personal  life 
or  which  they  can  appreciate  because  they  have 
experienced  situations  which  are  somewhat  simi- 
lar. In  this  group  the  emphasis  is  on  the  motor 
powers  of  the  mind.  In  the  third  type  we  find 
the  associational  or  analytical  group  who  ap- 
proach the  subject  more  from  the  philosophical 
viewpoint,  having  accumulated  logical  proposi- 
tions from  all  sources  and  united  these  into  a 
system.  This  is  primarily  a  relationship  process 
which  is  based  on  the  sensory  as  well  as  the  motor 
factors  of  consciousness.  In  this  group  the  em- 
phasis is  on  the  associational  powers  of  the  mind 
which  are  immediately  dependent  upon  experi- 
ence and  the  classification  thereof. 

Another  characteristic  concerning  which  there 
seems  to  be  some  difference  is  the  speed  with 
which  the  conversion  takes  place.  We  have  a 
tendency  to  think  of  these  as  falling  into  three 
classes — sudden,  medium  and  slow.  Probably 
most  of  the  sudden  are  those  which  place  great 
emphasis  on  the  emotional  while  most  of  the  slow 
consider  the  logical  element  of  great  importance. 
The  medium  may  belong  to  either  class.  The 
chances  are  that  in  those  which  we  list  as  being 


Psychology  of  Conversion  49 

sudden  the  change  Is  often  not  as  quick  as 
we  may  estimate.  In  many  cases  there  has  been 
a  preparation  extending  over  a  considerable 
period  of  which  the  individual  is  not  fully  con- 
scious and  sometimes  its  relation  with  the  conver- 
sion itself  is  not  clear  in  his  mind.  A  dissatis- 
faction may  have  been  slowly  growing  and  this  is 
expressed  suddenly  when  a  new  line  of  thot  is 
presented.  Other  conditions  enter  which  deter- 
mine the  time  required  such  as  the  earlier  experi- 
ence of  the  individual,  his  temperament,  his  previ- 
ous moral  life  and  whether  it  is  a  major  or  minor 
conversion. 

We  may  retrospect  by  saying  that  conversion 
is  really  a  series  of  conversions  or  a  chain  of 
mental  growths.  These  must  be  personal  and 
hence  individualistic.  They  will  be  expressed  In 
different  ways  as  minds  are  not  the  same.  This 
difference  may  be  subdivided  into  those  which  em- 
phasize In  turn  knowing,  feehng  and  willing  or 
on  another  line  of  consideration  the  sensory, 
motor  and  associational  types  of  mind  and  finally 
with  reference  to  the  time  we  may  classify  them 
as  sudden,  medium  and  slow.  This  all  points 
out  a  fundamental  which  is  that  no  one  can  plan 
a  conversion  for  another  but  each  must  work  out 
his  own  to  suit  his  type  of  mind,  his  earlier  ex- 
periences and  other  qualities  which  determine  in- 
dividuality. 


CHAPTER  VI 

PSYCHOLOGY   OF   WORSHIP 

PHYSICAL  security  and  material  luxury 
which  mother  earth  supplies  are  not  sufficient 
for  the  mind  of  man.  After  these  have  been 
grasped  to  their  fullest  extent  there  still  remains 
a  lack.  To  express  it  in  a  different  manner  we 
may  say  that  religion  of  some  sort  is  a  psychical 
necessity.  If  a  man  has  an  instinct  to  be  religious 
and  is  at  the  same  time  a  social  being,  it  fol- 
lows that  worship  is  a  natural  expression  of  the 
mind.  Christianity  opens  higher  fields  for  con- 
sciousness to  feed  upon  than  any  other  religion. 
And  one  means  of  stimulating  and  providing  for 
the  fullest  expression  of  these  is  found  in  true 
worship.  If  we  are  consistent,  the  same  spirit 
which  we  manifest  in  worship  will  be  reflected  in 
our  everyday  actions  as  we  deal  with  the  com- 
monplace matters  of  life  and,  conversely,  the 
spirit  which  characterizes  our  work  during  the  six 
days  of  the  week  will  reflect  itself  in  the  worship 
on  the  seventh.  Otherwise,  inconsistency  would 
be  the  result. 

50 


Psychology  of  Worship  51 

The  setting  up  of  a  goal  which  is  worthy  in 
the  mind  of  each  individual  is  a  prerequisite  for 
all  worship  which  is  sincere.  This  goal  must  be 
personal  in  the  sense  that  each  individual  has  his 
own  objective  in  mind  and  at  the  same  time  it 
will  be  social  in  that  one  person  can  partly  ap- 
preciate and  share  the  goal  of  another.  This 
fact  is  not  peculiar  to  religion  but  is  a  common- 
place with  all  mentality  in  its  social  atmosphere. 
A  group  of  fault-finding  politicians  never  can  ex- 
press unity,  neither  can  a  church  composed  of  nag- 
gers express  religion  in  its  highest  level. 

Some  worship  may  be  unconscious  or  imitative, 
that  is  doing  what  is  prescribed  or  formal  with 
little  or  no  idea  of  the  meaning  which  should 
be  attached  to  it.  But  real  worship  is  conscious, 
which  means  that  it  is  also  personal.  In  other 
words,  it  must  be  for  each  mind  a  means  of  com- 
ing closer  to  some  goal  or  of  satisfying  a  long- 
ing which  exists  in  the  human  soul.  These  goals 
will  not  always  be  identical  for  each  mind,  neither 
will  all  individuals  have  the  same,  but  there  will 
be  considerable  coincidence  as  we  all  have  much 
the  same  instinctive  tendencies  and  in  many  cases 
experiences  which  are  similar. 

Two  minds  (a)  and  (b)  are  separate;  but 
when  they  come  into  communication  it  is  not 
(a)  +  (b)  but  (a)  +  (b)  +  (x).  Some  addi- 
tional factor  (x),  which  we  have  not  been  able  to 


52  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

diagnose  exactly,  functions  in  addition  to  (a)  and 
(b).  This  is  true  in  worship  as  well  as  in  all 
phases  of  social  life.  The  social  participation 
of  the  individual  is  necessary  in  real  worship. 
Giving  and  taking  are  both  necessary  for  spirit- 
ual growth  because  we  are  made  that  way.  This 
point  was  referred  to  in  the  discussion  of  prayer. 
True  worship  is  not  only  characterized  by  the 
spirit  of  service  but  the  individual  is  also  willing 
to  have  others  serve  him  should  the  opportunity 
present  itself.  But  the  spirit  of  being  helped 
by  some  one  else  should  never  be  the  attitude  of 
a  lazy  man  who  lets  some  one  else  do  the  work 
which  he  is  paid  for  and  professes  to  be  doing 
himself.  It  should  be  the  spirit  of  a  pupil  who 
desires  to  know  how  to  work  a  problem  and,  hav- 
ing tried  every  solution  of  which  he  can  conceive, 
is  ready  to  accept  the  help  of  the  teacher  in  or- 
der that  his  own  capacity  for  work  may  be  in- 
creased. Real  personality  runs  on  a  track  of  so- 
cial helpfulness  and  attempting  any  narrower 
gauge  impairs  its  efficiency. 

A  potent  power  which  worship  uses,  is  sug- 
gestion. This  may  be  direct  or  indirect,  con- 
scious or  unconscious.  This  use  of  suggestion  in 
the  social  world  is  one  of  the  fundamentals  on 
which  worship  rests.  By  this  means  a  new  world 
is  often  opened  to  the  individual  and  its  sunshine 
often  clears  even  the  darkest  corner  of  the  mind. 


Psychology  of  Worship  53 

When  group  consciousness  is  of  the  right  sort  a 
powerful  influence  is  exerted  by  means  of  sugges- 
tion. This  should  be  regulated  by  the  intellec- 
tual powers  of  the  mind;  it  should  be  amplified 
in  the  mind  of  each  and  intimately  related  to  his 
own  experience;  it  should  always  be  encouraged 
to  terminate  in  action.  And  this  action  should 
have  a  definite  purpose  in  the  mind  of  the  one 
performing  it.  It  should  not  only  be  related  to 
his  previous  experience  but  should  also  be  strongly 
fortified  by  a  backing  of  individual  ideals.  Blind 
imitation  or  the  doing  of  an  act  because  another 
has  done  so  should  not  be  encouraged  to  any  ex- 
tent. This  has  in  many  cases  a  tendency  to  en- 
courage the  development  of  a  mob  mind  which 
is  flighty,  changeable  and  erratic  and  is  not  a 
basis  on  which  personality  or  character  of  a  strong 
type  can  be  built.  In  some  instances,  it  may  be 
justifiable  for  a  person  to  blindly  imitate  another 
but  it  should  never  end  here.  It  should  be  imme- 
diately followed  by  a  determined  effort  to  sup- 
port this  act  with  a  mental  foundation  of  its  own, 
this  being  amplified  by  many  and  varied  associa- 
tions. Then  the  act  will  become  permanent  be- 
cause it  is  rooted  in  his  own  mind. 

There  are  many  emotions,  especially  those  of 
a  higher  sort,  which  are  expressed  only  in  a  so- 
cial world.  Worship  is  of  special  value  in  the 
development  of  these.    There  are  some  phases  of 


54  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

worship  which  are  expressions  of  a  mob  mind,  but 
true  worship  is  an  expression  of  the  rational  pow- 
ers of  mind  in  a  social  atmosphere,  which  is 
its  normal  environment.  I  remember  a  notable 
singer  who  said  that  he  was  unable  to  sing  when 
practicing,  he  could  only  hum  his  tunes  because 
he  had  no  audience.  He  was  unable  to  put  any 
feeling  into  his  singing  unless  he  had  listeners. 
Feelings  of  certain  kinds  are  only  released  in  the 
presence  of  others.  Imagine  faith,  hope  and  love 
of  a  high  degree  developed  in  a  man  of  a  non- 
social  type.  Imagine  a  minister  going  to  a  phone 
in  his  study  and  the  various  members  of  his 
church  connected  with  that  phone.  The  minister 
preaches  his  sermon,  the  choir  sings  and  the  peo- 
ple listen.  Would  this  be  worship  of  the  high- 
est kind?  No,  not  in  the  same  degree  as  when 
all  were  in  the  same  room,  doing  certain  things 
in  cooperation  and  each  realizing  that  he  was  a 
part  of  a  large  social  unit.  This  is  not  only  the 
case  in  the  religious  world  but  is  just  as  true  in 
other  phases  of  human  endeavor. 

Like-mindedness  in  a  religious  group  intensi- 
fies feeling  and  broadens  social  consciousness. 
This  quahty  is  manifested  in  religious,  political 
and  all  social  phases  of  life.  It  is  very  different 
than  the  mind  of  a  mob.  The  latter  is  excessively 
emotional  and  is  lacking  in  an  intellectual  basis. 
The  former  has  an  emotional  element  but  it  is 


Psychology  of  Worship  ^^ 

balanced  by  the  Intellectual.  Like-mindedness  is 
also  different  from  a  mob  mind  in  that  each  in- 
dividual reserves  his  own  personality.  The  mind 
of  a  mob  is  not  directed  consciously  by  each  in- 
dividual mind  but  follows  in  a  non-intellectual  way 
the  mind  of  the  leader.  Emotions  will  be  mani- 
fested when  like-minded  individuals  get  together 
because  under  these  conditions  social  conscious- 
ness cannot  operate  in  any  other  way.  But  feel- 
ings should  always  be  controlled  by  as  high  a  de- 
gree of  rationality  as  is  possible,  no  matter 
whether  the  individual  is  alone  or  is  a  part  of  a 
group.  Worship  may  change  as  to  its  form  and 
manner  of  expression  but  its  fundamentals  will 
remain  the  same  and  it  will  always  be  a  necessary 
part  of  religion. 


CHAPTER  VII 

PSYCHOLOGY   OF   IDEALS 

DEVELOPMENT  in  the  various  lines  of 
human  thot  and  activity  Is  significant  in  that 
it  points  out  a  shifting  emphasis  or  rather  a  widen- 
ing viewpoint.  Formerly  in  the  world  of  finance, 
security  was  looked  upon  as  a  material  matter, 
but  in  recent  times  other  features  which  are  non- 
materialistic  have  come  to  the  forefront  such  as 
the  character  of  the  individual  wishing  to  borrow 
money.  A  noted  financier  has  said  that  one  man 
might  come  with  all  the  security  you  can  think 
of  in  a  material  sense  and  I  would  not  feel  safe 
in  lending  him  a  dollar.  Another  may  come 
with  almost  no  security  as  far  as  dollars  and  cents 
go  and  I  would  feel  safe  in  loaning  him  a  mil- 
lion. The  basis  is  not  materialistic,  it  is  in  an- 
other world.    The  real  security  is  character. 

Also  in  the  world  of  social  thot  crimes,  social 
diseases  and  the  like  are  no  longer  looked  upon 
as  being  purely  physical  but  as  having  mental 
qualities  as  well.  Again,  in  the  political  world 
government  is  no  longer  conceived  of  as  being  a 

56 


Psychology   of  Ideals  57 

mechanical  machine  but  mental  characteristics  are 
attributed  to  it.  In  the  realm  of  education  the 
advance  in  recent  years  has  been  due  in  a  measure 
to  the  recognition  of  the  mental  and  getting  away 
from  the  concept  that  the  child  is  so  much  matter 
to  be  put  thru  a  mechanical  process  which  should 
be  uniform  for  all.  Also  in  the  religious  world 
sin  is  conceived  of  not  as  being  altogether  physi- 
cal but  as  having  a  mental  quality  as  well.  And 
religion  in  its  entirety  is  not  looked  upon  as  the 
performance  of  certain  actions  which  are  the  re- 
sult of  the  following  of  certain  rules  or  the  like. 
Actions  are  of  no  avail  In  the  moral  or  religious 
world  unless  the  proper  psychical  attitude  is  back 
of  them.  And  in  the  world  of  philosophy,  ever 
since  the  Reformation,  in  certain  schools  the  ten- 
dency has  been  strongly  In  the  direction  of  an  in- 
creased emphasis  on  the  mental  and  psychical  as 
contrasted  with  a  decreasing  emphasis  on  the 
physical  and  materialistic. 

The  modern  view  is  to  recognize  the  physical 
and  the  mental  and  admit  their  relationship  but 
to  emphasize  the  mental.  While  related,  each  has 
in  a  sense  a  separate  and  distinct  world  and  each 
works  under  Its  own  set  of  laws.  In  the  physical 
world  the  more  you  get  the  more  you  have,  but 
In  the  psychical  the  more  you  give  the  more  you 
have.  To  illustrate,  the  boy  who  divides  his  mar- 
bles with  his  playmate  has   fewer  marbles  than 


58  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

before  but  he  has  more  of  a  feeling  of  friend- 
ship. In  the  material  world  force  is  supreme, 
while  in  the  mental,  love  and  kindness  are  su- 
preme. To  illustrate,  two  particles  of  matter 
meet,  one  having  four  times  the  force  of  the  other, 
the  result  is  that  the  lesser  is  smothered  by  the 
greater.  But  in  the  mental  and  spiritual  world 
the  individual  in  your  community  who  has  the 
greatest  influence  among  other  qualities  has  kind- 
ness and  consideration  for  others  in  his  mental 
makeup.  It  is  not  the  man  who  has  the  greatest 
physical  force.  Numerical  computation  is  a  means 
of  measuring,  but  it  is  so  only  in  the  physical 
world.  The  largest  army  does  not  always  win 
the  battle,  the  mental  attitude  must  also  be  con- 
sidered. We  see  in  the  present  war  that  the 
morale  of  the  troops  is  an  important  factor  which 
all  attempt  to  keep  as  high  as  possible.  This 
is  not  a  physical  but  a  mental  entity.  No  one 
has  ever  seen  an  idea  or  felt  one  or  held  one  in 
his  hand  but  in  all  the  world  there  is  nothing  so 
powerful. 

Ideals  are  ideas  not  yet  realized  in  practice. 
They  are  always  personal  and  are  directly  related 
to  the  consciousness  of  the  individual  who  has 
them.  What  would  be  ideals  to  one  may  not  be 
to  another  mind  at  all.  Ideals  also  change  as 
the  experience  of  the  individual  changes.  The 
ideals  of  a  man  of  forty  are  related  to  his  ideals 


Psychology   of  Ideals  59 

at  the  age  of  twenty,  but  they  are  not  Identical; 
they  have  changed.  An  idea  is,  in  the  main,  the 
result  of  experiences  in  themselves  disconnected 
from  each  other  but  which  consciousness  has  asso- 
ciated or  related  together  until  they  merge.  Con- 
sciousness is  never  content  with  what  is  presented 
thru  the  senses;  it  runs  on  a  much  broader  gauge. 
In  turn  ideas  are  related  and  worked  over  until 
they  evolve  into  an  ideal  which  is  an  idea  dreamed 
of  but  not  yet  realized.  The  order  of  the  process- 
es mentioned  here  may  vary  somewhat,  but  we 
find  they  are  all  present.  For  instance,  ideals 
may  seem  to  flash  on  consciousness  without  any 
warning.  But  in  case  they  do,  to  become  a  part 
of  our  mind  takes  time  as  we  must  relate  them  to 
our  previous  experiences.  Ideals  are  directly  de- 
pendent on  the  experience  of  the  individual.  To 
illustrate,  take  the  ideal  of  God's  love.  Let  any 
person  imagine,  if  he  can,  what  would  be  left  of 
his  ideal  of  God's  love  after  his  experience  of 
father  and  m.other  and  his  six  best  friends  has 
been  obliterated.  When  we  want  to  find  an  illus- 
tration of  God's  love  where  do  we  go?  We  be- 
lieve that  all  ideals  are  just  as  dependent  upon 
experience. 

Concerning  the  basis  upon  which  ideals  are  con- 
structed, three  suggestions  may  be  made.  First, 
have  as  wide  an  experience  as  possible  of  a  kind 
related  to  the  ideal.     Not  a  promiscuous  accumu- 


6o  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

lation  but  a  selection  of  those  situations  which 
have  a  bearing  on  the  direction  of  consciousness 
under  consideration.  For  instance  in  the  build- 
ing of  the  ideals  of  a  lawyer  the  experience  of  a 
fireman  would  be  of  little  avail.  What  is  wanted 
is  practice  in  law  and  related  callings. 

In  the  second  place,  the  accumulation  of  ex- 
periences, even  if  they  are  well  chosen,  is  not  all 
that  is  necessary.  These  must  be  analyzed  and 
worked  over  mentally  or  confusion  will  be  the 
result.  A  traveler  may  have  seen  all  the  sights 
in  America  and  yet  have  confusion  of  mind  when 
it  comes  to  the  making  of  statements  regarding 
these  because  of  a  lack  of  analysis  and  synthesis. 
Certain  features  of  related  situations  must  be  se- 
lected, others  rejected  and  the  result  worked  over 
until  it  becomes  clear  in  consciousness. 

In  the  third  place,  the  results  should  be  stated 
in  personal  terms.  In  this  condition  the  ideal  is 
of  real  value;  it  is  of  a  type  which  can  be  used 
and  applied.  This  means  that  the  ideal  is  your 
own.  Some  other  individual  may  agree  with  you 
in  your  findings  but  you  still  retain  certain  per- 
sonal characteristics  which  he  does  not  appreciate 
as  well  as  you  do. 

The  first,  second  and  oftentimes  the  third  sug- 
gestion just  made  do  not  work  separately  but  are 
usually  closely  interwoven.  The  order  may  not 
always  follow  that  named  but,  when  an  ideal  has 


Psychology  of  Ideals  6i 

been  evolved  in  consciousness,  these  three  proc- 
esses have  been  the  gateway  to  its  formation. 
Ideals  are  not  stars  that  are  disconnected  from 
the  affairs  of  ordinary  life.  If  real  they  are  like 
guide-posts  along  the  way  which  point  to  an  ob- 
jective beyond.  Without  ideals  the  way  would  be 
vague  and  cloudy. 

Every  normal  individual  has  ideals.  All 
healthy  minds  have  certain  objectives  which  they 
desire  but  have  not  yet  attained  unto.  It  is  not 
a  problem  of  teaching  people  to  form  ideals;  it 
is  a  question  of  having  individuals  so  direct  their 
attention,  so  regulate  their  interests,  so  guide  their 
hopes,  that  the  ideals  they  form  will  be  of  the 
highest  type  of  which  they  are  capable  at  that 
time.  Ideals  give  direction  and  balance  to  con- 
sciousness. Some  have  said  that  a  man  without 
ideals  is  like  a  ship  without  a  rudder.  Not  so. 
He  is  like  a  skyscraper  in  mid-Pacific — it  does  not 
exist.  The  cases  which  are  often  explained  by 
a  so-called  lack  of  ideals  should  be  accounted  for 
by  saying  that  the  individual  had  a  lower  ideal 
than  he  was  judged  to  be  capable  of  at  that  time. 
We  would  not  minimize  the  value  of  acquaint- 
ance with  minds  of  a  high  type  and  the  benefits  to 
be  derived  therefrom,  but  this  contact  Is  of  little 
value  unless  It  is  in  accordance  with  the  points 
just  mentioned. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PSYCHOLOGY  OF   SUCCESS 

IN  the  discussion  of  this  topic  we  shall  attempt 
to  point  out  some  of  the  fundamental  differ- 
ences between  the  man  who  succeeds  and  the  man 
who  falls.  We  mean  success  not  In  the  selfish, 
worldly  aspect,  not  power  In  the  sense  of  having 
men  under  your  control,  or  being  a  millionaire, 
or  holding  a  high  political  office — not  any  of  these 
In  themselves.  But  success  means  achievement 
In  the  mental  and  social  sense  of  the  term.  A 
man  who  really  succeeds  Is  one  to  whom  many 
are  Indebted  because  they  realize  that  he  has 
helped  them.  This  man  has  power  In  the  sense 
that  his  life  has  gone  out  and  touched  many  lives 
and  helped  them  but  not  power  In  the  sense  that 
he  compels  many  to  follow  his  dictates. 

To  achieve  anything  worth  while  each  Individ- 
ual must  have  a  goal.  This  goal  must  be  as  high 
as  possible  and  the  individual  must  hold  to  his 
ideal.  This  point  has  been  touched  upon  in  deal- 
ing with  the  subject  of  ideals.  There  Is  only  one 
road  to  real  success  and  along  this  we  find  slgn- 

62 


Psychology   of  Success  63 

boards  with  two  words  on  them,  these  being  re- 
lated in  meaning — concentration  and  endurance. 
We  may  think  that  exceptions  to  these  conditions 
just  mentioned  are  found  but  upon  looking  further 
we  usually  find  seeming  sudden  success  preceded 
by  years  of  preparation  and  quiet  work  or  that  the 
individual  has  not  achieved  success  in  the  real 
sense  of  the  word. 

Trite  sayings  are  often  means  of  confusing  or 
mistaking  the  truth.  "Familiarity  breeds  con- 
tempt." Many  people  accept  this  as  true  without 
thinking.  As  has  been  said:  "Among  honest  men 
familiarity  breeds  confidence,  not  contempt."  A 
quotation  with  reference  to  success  which  also 
causes  many  illusions  is  the  following:  "Some  men 
are  born  great,  some  achieve  greatness,  while 
others  have  greatness  thrust  upon  them."  Being 
born  great  gives  the  impression  that  all  the  con- 
ditions were  set  before  the  individual  knew  any- 
thing about  them.  Having  greatness  thrust  upon 
one  gives  the  impression  that  you  are  to  act  like 
a  sponge  and  just  absorb  and  take  on  that  which 
is  around  you.  If  we  mean  real  success,  these  two 
phases  of  the  quotation  are  false.  Some  men  ex- 
plain their  failure  by  saying  that  they  were  not 
born  great — a  lazy  way  of  meeting  the  situation. 
I  recall  one  individual  who  had  an  oversupply  of 
talents.  There  seemed  to  be  almost  nothing  which 
he  could  not  do  better  than  those  around  him» 


64  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

and  I  know  he  was  often  envied  by  those  who 
knew  him.  This  was  the  situation  in  his  early 
years  in  college,  but  one  year  after  he  had  gradu- 
ated he  would  have  been  classed  as  an  absolute 
failure.  He  was  an  ill-paid  clerk  in  a  small  gro- 
cery in  a  backwoods  village.  On  the  other  hand, 
we  see  men  who  in  the  early  years  of  life  seem  to 
possess  no  unusual  abilities,  but  after  a  time 
achieve  success.  Others  look  at  success  as  com- 
ing to  those  who  were  lucky  as  in  a  gambling 
game,  they  were  not  lucky  so  did  not  achieve  it — 
a  soft  and  weak  explanation.  The  only  real  great- 
ness which  comes  to  any  man  is  that  which  he 
achieves,  that  which  he  works  out  himself.  Con- 
centration, constant  application,  oftentimes  re- 
fraining from  some  things  you  would  like  to  do, 
are  necessary  conditions  which  must  be  complied 
with  if  success  is  to  be  attained.  The  eight-hour 
laws  are  fair  and  just  as  a  protection  for  labor, 
but  any  man  who  has  achieved  real  success  will 
have  worked  over  eight  hours  more  than  one  day 
in  his  life.  Opposition  is  the  law  of  growth  in 
all  the  organic  world.  Imagine  an  animal  born 
with  every  thing  that  it  desired  within  reach.  No 
exertion  being  necessary  for  life  and  the  attaining 
of  pleasure,  we  can  readily  imagine  what  sort  of 
an  animal  would  be  the  result.  The  same  would 
be  the  result  in  the  mental  world  if  conditions  were 
similar.     Many  people  make  every  obstacle  they 


Psychology  of  Success  65 

meet  with  a  stopping  place  and,  of  course,  indi- 
viduals of  this  kind  will  never  arrive  at  any  goal 
worth  while. 

Preparation  for  real  success  is  often  long  and 
trying.  We  often  become  discouraged  and  won- 
der if  it  pays.  But  we  should  remember  that  every 
period  of  real  achievement  in  a  man's  life  has  been 
preceded  by  a  period  of  quiet  and  oftentimes  un- 
known preparation.  This  quiet  time  is  the  trying 
period  and  is  the  place  where  most  men  fail. 
President  Lincoln's  success  is  not  explained  by 
what  happened  after  he  became  President.  That 
is  the  effect  following  the  cause  which  is  found 
in  the  years  of  study  and  training  of  the  mind, 
which  preceded.  He  made  use  of  opportunities 
which  others  of  his  time  belittled  or  counted  of  no 
value  in  themselves.  "There  is  no  more  sad  ex- 
perience than  that  of  a  man  who  faces  an  oppor- 
tunity that  he  would  like  to  use  and  finds  himself 
unable  to  use  it  because  he  did  not  prepare  for  it 
when  he  had  a  chance  to  do  so.  A  piece  of  work 
that  he  would  like  to  do  lies  before  him  but  he 
must  give  it  to  another  because  he  has  failed  to 
make  the  requisite  preparation,  and  it  is  now  too 
late  to  do  what  could  easily  have  been  done  earlier. 
The  door  is  shut  in  his  face."  Success  is  partly 
dependent  upon  the  opportunities  we  have,  but 
it  is  many  more  times  dependent  on  the  use  we 
make  of  these.     The  man  who  will  not  sacrifice 


66  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

will  never  succeed  as  self-sacrifice  is  a  universal 
law  of  success. 

Concentration  and  staying  by  the  job  we  tackle 
are  necessary  but  more  must  be  added  before  real 
success  comes — we  must  stick  to  one  thing  long 
enough  to  become  proficient.  This  is  the  differ- 
ence between  a  jack-of-all-trades  and  a  specialist. 
Each  may  have  expended  the  aggregate  amount 
of  energy  but  one  expended  it  on  a  dozen  callings 
while  the  other  centered  it  on  his  specialty. 

Another  difference  between  the  man  who  suc- 
ceeds and  the  one  who  fails  is  that  the  former 
makes  continuous  application  while  that  of  the^  lat- 
ter is  often  spasmodic.  A  good  clerk  is  not  the 
man  who  tries  to  apply  the  best  he  knows  one  day 
in  the  week  or  two  months  in  the  year  but  the 
one  who  does  his  best  every  day.  A  good  lawyer 
is  not  the  man  who  shows  a  tremendous  interest, 
high  concentration  here  and  there,  but  the  one  who 
is  at  it  all  the  time.  The  same  is  true  of  a  stu- 
dent; careful  continuous  preparation  day  by  day 
is  the  only  road  to  being  a  real  student.  The  same 
is  true  of  the  person  who  would  achieve  any 
thing  worth  while  in  the  moral  and  rehgious 
world. 

Progress  in  any  line  is  not  even.  There  are  peri- 
ods when  we  can  see  ourselves  move,  followed  by 
those  where  we  seem  to  be  at  a  standstill.  These 
are  followed  again  by  rapid  improvement.     Any 


Psychology   of  Success  67 

new  task  we  take  up  shows  rapid  gains  at  first 
followed  by  a  stage  where  we  make  no  gain.  This 
is  the  place  we  find  a  large  number  dropping  out 
and  turning  to  some  other  line.  But  true  suc- 
cess is  never  achieved  so  easily  as  this.  Real 
achievement  requires  that  the  individual  carry 
himself  thru  these  periods  of  seeming  stagnation 
which  are  followed  by  subsequent  improvement. 
Interest  in  improvement  is  a  necessary  condition 
which  must  be  complied  with.  Being  satisfied  with 
what  you  have  achieved  is  certain  evidence  that 
progress  has  ceased. 

Another  aid  to  improvement  is  that  we  fix  our 
minds  on  the  positive  and  not  the  negative,  think 
of  what  you  wish  to  do  and  not  what  you  want  to 
avoid.  This  fact  has  been  mentioned  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  temptation. 

Real  success  is  not  an  achievement  which  is  at- 
tained in  a  moment  of  time,  it  is  a  series  of 
growths  which  are  slow  and  gradual.  These  are 
interspersed  with  periods  of  little  or  no  progress. 
Real  success  calls  for  the  expenditure  of  the  high- 
est mental  energy  of  which  we  are  capable,  but 
when  it  has  been  achieved  we  have  something 
that  is  our  own.  No  one  can  steal  or  destroy  it. 
Real  success  is  a  pearl  of  great  price,  an  attain- 
ment to  be  desired  by  any  vigorous  mind. 


CHAPTER  IX 

PSYCHOLOGY  OF  FAITH 

FAITH  is  not  peculiar  to  religion;  the  ex- 
pression of  it  can  be  seen  in  all  phases  of 
life's  activities.  It  is  a  necessity  not  only  in  the 
religious  world,  but  in  all  pursuits  which  mankind 
undertakes.  To  illustrate,  subtract  faith  from 
the  home  and  what  do  we  have  left?  We  would 
not  dare  use  the  terms  we  do  at  present.  Father, 
mother,  son,  daughter,  brother  and  sister  would 
all  have  a  changed  meaning,  if  faith  was  to  be 
taken  from  the  relationship  implied.  In  the  fac- 
tory, if  the  best  results  are  to  be  gained  for  both 
labor  and  capital,  confidence  must  be  mutual  be- 
tween the  employer  and  the  employee.  Confi- 
dence is,  in  a  sense,  another  way  of  saying  that 
the  worker  has  faith  in  the  man  for  whom  he 
works  or  that  the  employer  has  faith  in  the  man 
who  works  for  him.  The  same  fact  applies  to 
the  business  world.  Take  faith,  which  at  times 
may  be  restricted,  from  the  economic  affairs  of 
life  and  they  would  be  very  much  crippled  and 
in  some  instances  completely  ruined.     The  indi- 

68 


Psychology  of  Faith  69 

vidual  would  no  longer  be  satisfied  to  go  to  the 
bank,  leave  his  money  and  come  away  with  noth- 
ing but  a  few  scratches  in  his  bank  book.  Neither 
would  any  one  be  content  to  take  a  twenty  dollar 
bin  which  is  a  piece  of  paper  with  certain  marks 
on  it  and  believe  that  it  is  worth  the  value  which 
we  at  present  assign  to  it.  The  merchant,  with- 
out faith  in  his  customers,  would  not  dare  load 
his  shelves  with  goods.  These  illustrations  might 
be  continued  indefinitely  but  they  are  sufficient  to 
bring  out  the  fact  that  faith  is  a  necessity  in  the 
world  of  business.  In  the  world  of  education  the 
teacher  who  is  awake  to  the  opportunities  that  are 
to  be  developed,  will  seek,  during  the  early  part 
of  the  course,  to  arouse  and  develop  faith  on  the 
part  of  the  pupils.  The  teacher-pupil  relationship 
could  never  be  maintained,  as  modern  education 
specifies,  without  faith  on  the  part  of  the  teacher 
as  well  as  the  pupil.  In  fact,  in  all  the  world  of 
social  intercourse  faith  is  an  important  foundation 
stone  which  supports  life  as  it  exists  in  its  highly 
developed  state. 

All  science  rests  on  faith.  No  man  has  the  time 
nor  the  capacity  in  any  science  to  prove  and  satisfy 
himself  with  regard  to  all  that  which  is  expressed 
at  present  as  truth.  He  must,  even  in  his  re- 
stricted field  of  interest,  take  the  word  of  another 
in  whom  he  has  faith.  The  extension  of  any 
science  is  too  broad  for  the  capacity  of  any  human 


70  Applied  Religions  Psychology 

mind.  Unless  faith  enters,  which  enables  one  to 
take  the  conclusions  of  a  fellow  scientist,  one's 
knowledge  would  be  very  limited.  If  faith  is 
called  for  in  the  narrow  field  of  one  science,  is 
it  is  not  still  more  of  a  necessity  if  we  extend  our 
viewpoint  to  include  all  sciences?  Remove  the 
belief  in  the  "uniformity  of  nature"  and  we  have 
eliminated  science  as  we  conceive  of  it.  The  par- 
ticles of  matter,  the  thots  of  the  mind  would  be 
stripped  of  all  recognition  and,  of  course,  all  or- 
ganization. Even  with  experience  we  would  be 
unable  to  predict  what  the  future  has  in  store  for 
us.  The  belief  in  the  "uniformity  of  nature"  can 
be  expressed  in  another  way  by  saying  that  we 
have  faith  in  the  constancy  of  nature.  If  we 
knew  all,  past,  present  and  future  included,  if  we 
could  prove  all,  then  faith  would  not  be  needed. 
This  would  mean  that  we  must  experience  all,  un- 
derstand all,  remember  all,  relate  all  and  organize 
all  perfectly.  This  is,  of  course,  impossible  with 
our  present  limitations. 

Faith  is  very  necessary  in  the  world  of  religion 
because  it  involves  mental  and  social  relationships 
of  a  higher  and  wider  degree.  Religion  also 
deals  with  the  supernatural  and  in  this  relation 
it  calls  for  faith  of  a  highly  developed  sort.  As 
we  shall  attempt  to  bring  out  later,  these  higher 
types  of  faith  are  built  on  the  lower  and  more  ele- 


Psychology  of  Faith  71 

mentary  types  which  unfold  themselves  in  our 
dealings  with  the  more  tangible  affairs  of  life. 

"Now  faith  is  the  assurance  of  things  hoped 
for,  a  conviction  of  things  not  seen."  It  is  a  be- 
lief in  the  future  which  is  related  to  the  experience 
of  the  past;  it  is  an  expectation  looked  for  in  the 
time  to  come  which  is  not  contradicted  by  our 
memory  of  that  which  has  gone  before.  In  other 
words,  faith  is  a  conviction  in  something  antici- 
pated which,  because  of  its  futurity,  experience  is 
unable  to  establish  by  proof;  it  is  a  feeling  of  se- 
curity which  is  attached  to  something  beyond. 

Faith  is  mental;  it  is  intangible  and  unmeasur- 
able,  if  we  use  these  terms  in  the  same  sense  that 
we  apply  them  in  the  material  world.  But  it  is 
just  as  measurable  and  definite  as  any  mental  phe- 
nomenon. We  are  unable  to  say  that  one  person 
has  twice  as  much  faith  as  another  with  the  same 
accuracy  as  we  say  that  sixteen  is  twice  eight.  With 
our  present  limitations  we  probably  never  can  be  as 
definite  in  quantitative  estimates  in  the  mental  as 
we  are  in  the  material  world.  Memory  exists  and 
different  individuals  have  quantitative  differences 
which  we  discern  but  are  unable  to  compare  ex- 
actly. We  cannot  prov^e  friendship  in  the  same 
manner  that  we  prove  that  water  is  H-0,  but  it 
can  be  established  by  a  different  proof  which  is  just 
as  legitimate.    The  actions  of  a  friend  and  his  at- 


72  Applied  Religions  Psychology 

titude  revealed  thereby,  especially  under  adverse 
conditions,  are  the  basis  on  which  we  build  our  con- 
clusions. So  it  is  with  regard  to  faith;  it  is  not 
guesswork  but  it  can  be  proven  and  there  is  a 
basis  for  the  establishment  thereof.  The  mental 
attitude  as  revealed  in  the  actions  of  the  individual 
is  the  evidence  of  faith. 

Faith  has  been  subdivided  into  three  groups,  as 
follows : 

I — Belief  in  a  proposition  which  cannot  be 
established  by  complete  evidence. 

2 — Belief  which  is  based  on  the  authority  of 
another. 

3 — Doctrines  which  are  the  subjects  of  be- 
lief, especially  those  of  a  religious  kind. 
We  beg  to  submit  another  classification: 

/Materialistic<  T,.   , 
TVT  1  /  \Higher 

Natural/  ^ 

\Non-materialistic<  TT-  i 

\Higher 

\Non-materialistic 

We  shall  now  attempt  an  explanation  of  the 
above  outline.  The  term  natural  refers  to  all 
that  which  we  group  under  the  laws  of  nature. 
These  are  the  results  of  the  cumulative  experi- 


Psychology  of  Faith  73 

ences  of  students  from  the  beginning  to  the  pres- 
ent. In  contrast  to  this,  the  term  supernatural 
is  used  to  express  that  which  is  beyond  the  laws  of 
nature.  The  two  terms  are  not  in  opposition  and, 
in  a  sense,  we  should  not  use  the  word  contrast 
to  explain  the  relationship.  It  is  not  the  same  re- 
lationship as  that  which  exists  between  up  and 
down — these  are  opposites;  but  it  more  closely  re- 
sembles that  which  exists  between  a  mile  and  a 
million  miles.  One  carries  the  other  further,  one 
is  beyond  the  other.  We  can  comprehend  the  first 
with  a  feeling  of  definiteness  but  when  we  speak 
of  the  latter  we  have  a  feeling  of  trying  to  grasp 
something  which  is  beyond. 

Returning  again  to  the  natural  world,  we  may 
subdivide  it  into  the  materialistic  and  the  non- 
materialistic.  The  materialistic  refers  to  the 
world  of  matter.  Viewing  it  from  the  standpoint 
of  consciousness  we  speak  of  it  as  the  objective 
world.  The  science  of  chemistry  deals  with  this 
world  as  do  all  the  other  physical  sciences.  We 
may  divide  this  materialistic  subdivision  of  the 
natural  world  into  the  lower  and  higher  world  of 
knowledge.  The  terms  lower  and  higher  are  not 
used  in  the  sense  that  one  despises  the  other  but 
in  the  sense  that  one  is  earlier  and  more  elemen- 
tary in  its  development.  To  illustrate — a  lower 
form  of  faith  in  this  world  is  expressed  in  the 


74  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

statement  that  coal  burns,  while  a  higher  form  is 
embodied  in  the  assertion  that  most  coal  is  of  a 
carboniferous  formation. 

The  non-materialistic  natural  world  refers  to 
that  which  we  usually  term  the  mental.  We  could 
use  the  term  spiritual  to  refer  to  this,  excluding, 
of  course,  that  meaning  of  the  term  which  refers 
to  the  supernatural  world.  This  non-materialistic, 
natural  world  may  be  divided  into  the  higher  and. 
lower,  these  terms  being  used  in  the  same  sense 
as  indicated  above.  To  illustrate,  that  of  the 
lower  type  would  be  faith  in  a  certain  friend, 
while  that  of  the  higher  type  would  be  faith  in 
society. 

We  have  attempted  in  a  feeble  way  to  explain 
the  supernatural  world,  but,  as  you  have  noted,  in- 
stead of  speaking  of  it  in  definite,  positive  terms 
we  have  simply  implied  the  direction  in  which  it 
lies.  In  considerations  of  this  kind  we  are  im- 
pressed with  our  inability  and  limitations.  We 
are  transgressing  into  the  realm  of  philosophy  but 
it  can,  in  a  way,  be  pardoned.  There  are  few 
tasks  which  we  attempt  and  to  which  we  continue 
to  apply  ourselves  but  that  will  reveal  our  phi- 
losophy of  life.  We  have  subdivided  the  super- 
natural world  into  the  materialistic  and  the  non- 
materialistic.  These  terms  are  used  with  the  same 
meaning  as  previously  described  except  that  they 
apply  to  the  supernatural  world.     In  considering 


Psychology  of  Faith  75 

the  materialistic,  supernatural  world  we  are  con- 
fronted at  once  by  the  belief  in  the  "uniformity  of 
nature."  This  implies  that  there  is  a  force  or  a 
something  behind  phenomena  in  the  material 
world.  Our  experience  with  the  sciences  is  evi- 
dence to  support  our  belief  in  this  principle.  The 
constancy  of  nature,  the  complex  organization  with 
which  we  are  confronted,  leads  us  to  believe  that 
something  must  be  the  cause.  This  view  is  natural 
and  at  the  same  time  logical.  Upon  walking  into 
a  barn  you  see  grains  of  corn  scattered  promiscu- 
ously upon  the  floor,  you  do  not  pay  any  particu- 
lar attention  but  estimate  it  as  being  accidental. 
But  let  us  suppose  that  these  grains  of  corn  were 
arranged  in  such  a  manner  as  to  form  a  five- 
pointed  star;  you  would  immediately  imply  that 
some  one  had  placed  them  in  that  orderly  fashion. 
So  it  is  when  we  turn  our  minds  to  the  materialis- 
tic world,  we  cannot  be  content  to  say  that  it  was 
accidental.  We  feel  that  some  directive  force 
must  be  behind  it  all. 

On  the  other  hand,  turning  to  the  non-material- 
istic, supernatural  world,  we  are  brought  face  to 
face  with  a  feeling  that  there  is  a  force  behind 
the  mental  world.  This  force  is  not  included  in 
our  previous  diagnosis  and  explanation  of  the  men- 
tal world,  it  is  beyond.  We,  of  course,  cannot  de- 
scribe this  force  but  we  feel  that  it  exists  and  also 
that  we  have  some  connection  with  it.    This  force 


76  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

is  usually  spoken  of  as  God.  It  is  natural  for  us 
to  ascribe  mentality  to  the  force  behind  the  ma- 
terialistic world.  We  have  a  tendency  to  think 
of  the  world  as  a  unitary  system,  and  experience 
in  the  various  activities  of  life  tends  to  confirm 
this,  so  we  feel  that  there  must  be  a  power  behind 
it  all.  Carrying  out  this  idea,  it  seems  most  logi- 
cal to  unite  these  forces  which  we  have  spoken  of 
separately  into  one  which  we  term  God,  The 
M aster-Mind  and  the  like. 

Faith  in  this  supernatural  world  is  an  outgrowth 
from  faith  in  the  natural.  This  must  be  so  for  the 
same  reason  that  a  child  must  be  able  to  recognize 
an  individual  before  he  can  know  of  society  as 
being  composed  of  individuals.  The  materialistic 
and  the  non-materialistic-supernatural,  if  viewed 
in  the  light  previously  spoken  of,  should  reinforce 
and  aid  one  another.  For  instance,  if  you  want  an 
idea  of  the  beauty  of  God,  it  can  be  found  in  the 
scenery  of  the  natural  world;  if  you  are  thinking 
of  the  strength  of  God,  look  at  a  volcano  in  ac- 
tion; the  symmetry  of  God  is  revealed  in  the  body 
of  man  with  its  congruity;  but  if  you  are  looking 
for  God's  ideal  of  character,  God's  love  and  the 
like,  we  must  turn  from  the  materialistic  world 
and  attempt  to  evolve  ideas  from  the  non-ma- 
terialistic things  of  life.  The  actions  of  Christ 
and  the  motives  which  we  believe  were  behind 
these  are  the  primary  source  of  information  in 


Psychology  of  Faith  77 

this  respect.  It  follows  that  if  one's  philosophy  of 
life  relates  these  two  forces  under  the  concept  of 
God  the  faith  which  is  expressed  in  the  super- 
natural world  will  be  influenced  thereby.  As  we 
view  the  materialistic  world  it  will  strengthen  our 
faith  in  the  non-materialistic  and,  conversely,  as 
we  meditate  on  the  non-materialistic  our  faith  in 
the  materiaHstic  will  also  be  built  up  and  strength- 
ened. 

Faith  is  a  reflection  from  the  experiences  thru 
which  each  individual  has  passed.  It  cannot  be 
handed  from  one  to  another;  it  is  impossible  for 
the  faithless  to  consistently  imitate  the  actions  of 
one  who  has  faith;  nor  can  it  be  forced  on  the 
mind  from  without.  The  germ  of  development 
must  come  from  within  the  mind  itself.  Faith 
can  only  make  its  appearance  and  develop  as  the 
result  of  volition  on  the  part  of  the  individual 
himself;  it  can  only  grow  when  he  desires  it  to  do 
so.  The  adding  of  new  experiences  and  help  in 
the  interpretation  of  these  will  aid  in  the  upbuild- 
ing of  faith,  but  this  does  not  violate  the  fact  that 
the  fundamental  cause  is  within  the  mind.  All 
faith  is  dependent  upon  experience  thru  which  the 
individual  has  passed.  Faith  pushes  beyond  the 
immediate  realm  of  experience  but  it  is  indebted 
to  that  for  its  existence.  To  make  it  more  con- 
crete, imagine  a  child  whose  parents  and  immedi- 
ate associates  are  such  that  he  has  no  faith  in  their 


78  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

honesty  or  sincerity.  If  this  child  could  have  a 
concept  to  which  we  would  dare  attach  the  name 
of  God,  we  are  certain  that  his  faith  in  God's 
honesty  would  not  be  of  as  high  a  type  as  that  of 
a  child  whose  environment  has  been  such  that, 
when  he  reaches  the  age  where  he  is  thrown  on 
his  own  responsibility,  he  must  be  taught  that  some 
people  are  not  honest  in  order  that  he  himself 
may  not  be  trapped.  We  also  see  ample  evidence 
of  this  in  the  relationships  of  the  business  world. 
A  man  who  has  dealt  with  a  group  of  individuals 
who  are  honest  will  have  a  different  faith  in  hu- 
manity than  the  man  who  has  associated  with  men 
of  shady  character.  Environment  and  the  inter- 
pretation which  each  individual  places  upon  the 
same  are  factors  which  must  be  recognized  in  the 
construction  of  faith. 

In  the  mental  development  of  the  child,  the 
elementary  mental  stages,  such  as  perception  of 
objects  and  the  like,  must  have  made  their  start 
before  faith  can  consciously  appear.  In  a  like 
manner,  imagination  follows  and  is  dependent 
upon  these  for  its  development.  These  facts  are 
true  for  the  same  reason  that  a  foundation  must 
precede  the  superstructure ;  it  is  that  on  which  the 
building  rests.  Faith  does  not  contradict  percep- 
tion, memory,  reasoning  and  the  like.  It  rests  on 
that  which  they  have  produced  but  is  not  content 
with  it.     Faith  is  that  which  makes  us  feel  that 


Psychology  of  Faith  79 

we  must  push  beyond  the  immediate  limitations 
under  which  these  mental  powers  operate.  Faith 
functions  in  much  the  same  manner  as  a  sign  on  a 
crossroad.  Without  the  sign,  to  a  stranger  it  is 
simply  an  intersection  of  two  roads,  that  is  all, 
but  with  the  sign  "Fifty  miles  to  New  York"  on 
the  right  and  "Four  hundred  and  fifty  to  Pitts- 
burgh" on  the  left  it  is  more  than  a  cross-road. 
In  a  like  manner  faith  takes  the  results  of  the 
other  powers  of  the  mind  and  completes  them. 
The  mind  is  not  content  to  operate  in  a  world  of 
narrow  limitations.  Imagine  how  you  would  feel 
if  it  were  possible  to  talk  and  think  only  of  that 
which  you  see  at  the  present  moment  in  the  phys- 
ical world.  It  is,  of  course,  impossible,  because 
it  is  entirely  too  narrow  a  range  for  the  mind. 

Intellectual  achievement  conveys  us  so  far  but 
it  has  certain  limitations.  At  this  point  faith  steps 
in  and  carries  us  a  step  beyond.  It,  in  a  sense, 
completes  and  rounds  out  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment. However,  a  friendly  relation  must  always 
be  maintained  between  these  two.  Otherwise 
superstition  and  irrationality  would  show  them- 
selves. For  instance,  if  a  person  should  say  that 
he  had  faith  to  believe  that  a  certain  drunkard 
could  be  reformed  it  would  be  rational,  because 
experience  has  produced  many  instances  to  sup- 
port his  belief.  Of  course,  some  drunkards  have 
not  been  reformed  but  many  have  been  and  there 


8o  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

is  a  possibility  that  this  individual  may  belong  to 
the  latter  group.     But  suppose  a  person  should 
go  to  the  top  of  a  skyscraper  and  say  he  had  faith 
to  believe  that  he  could  jump  off  and  not  receive 
any  injury  or  imagine  a  person  going  into  a  sick 
room  and  taking  no  precautions  but  exposing  him- 
self in  every  way  possible  and  at  the  same  time 
saying,  "There  is  no  danger,  I  have  faith  to  be- 
lieve that  I  will  not  contract  the  disease,  I  am 
immune."    These  latter  would  be  examples  of  ir- 
rational faith  or  a  better  term  to  apply  would  be 
foolishness.     Some   individuals   are  restricted  in 
the  development  of  faith  because  of  the  limita- 
tions of  environment  over  which  they  have  no  con- 
trol.    Such  persons  are  not  to  be  censured.     But 
those  who  are  not  forced  to  a  narrow  environ- 
ment, or  those  who  disregard  a  possible  experi- 
ence, or  those  who  misinterpret  an  experience  are 
to  be  censured.     Real  faith  is  that  which  is  built 
on  the  experiences  of  the  individual  and  accords 
as  far  as  it  can  with  them.    It  is  rational,  involving 
the  higher  powers  of  the  mind  for  its  develop- 
ment. 

Differences  in  faith  are  to  be  expected  just  as 
we  look  for  dissimilarities  with  respect  to  other 
mental  powers.  This  condition  does  not  disprove 
faith  but  rather  strengthens  our  belief  in  it.  It 
also  confirms  the  fact  that  it  comes  primarily  from 
within  and  not  from  without.     It  emphasizes  the 


Psychology  of  Faith  81 

fact  that  faith  is  built  on  experience  and  the  in- 
terpretation of  it.  Memory  differs  as  experiences 
differ;  so  it  is  with  faith.  Even  tho  the  environ- 
mental conditions  may  be  the  same,  we  find  dif- 
ferences which  are  caused  by  interpretations  which 
are  not  similar.  On  the  other  hand,  we  expect  and 
do  find  numerous  points  of  agreement  in  regard 
to  faith.  This  agreement  increases  as  the  environ- 
ments and  the  mental  temperaments  compared  be- 
come more  nearly  the  same. 

Faith  is  closely  related  to  the  ideals  which  one 
has  in  life.  The  two  are  interwoven  and  are  often 
hard  to  separate.  Ideals  in  many  instances  are 
closely  related  to  the  world  of  action  but  faith 
even  here  makes  itself  felt.  Ideals  in  some  cases 
are  further  removed  from  actual  conditions,  but 
these  again  could  not  exist  long,  if  faith  was  to 
be  taken  away.  Both  faith  and  ideals  are  depend- 
ent upon  experience  on  the  one  side  and  the  per- 
sonality of  the  individual  on  the  other,  so  it  is 
natural  that  there  should  be  a  relationship  between 
them. 

Errors  occur  in  connection  with  faith  just  as 
they  do  in  connection  with  the  other  mental  pow- 
ers. These,  however,  are  not  any  more  numerous 
here  than  in  other  fields,  and  their  causes  are  much 
the  same.  Limitations  of  environment  which  the 
individual  could  have  removed  had  he  desired  to 
do  so  must  be  classed  as  errors.     An  individual 


82  Applied  Religious  Psychology 

who  has  failed  to  acquire  as  wide  an  experience 
for  the  upbuilding  of  faith  as  was  in  his  power  to 
acquire  is  at  fault.  Lack  of  mental  powers  such 
as  perception,  memory,  reasoning,  imagination 
and  the  like,  which  are  necessary  for  the  develop- 
ment of  faith,  must  be  classed  as  errors  if  it  was 
in  the  power  of  the  individual  to  avoid  the  defi- 
ciency. Certain  individuals  have  natural  imper- 
fections over  which  they  have  no  control,  these 
cannot  be  looked  upon  as  errors.  Cultivating  the 
best  and  as  many  friendships  as  possible  is  an  aid 
in  the  upbuilding  of  faith  which  no  one  can  afford 
to  overlook. 

Faith  is  closely  related  to  action.  It  must  pre- 
cede actions  of  a  conscious  sort  if  they  are  to  be 
definite  and  determined.  The  two  are  not  sepa- 
rate but  in  a  sense  the  relationship  is  reciprocal. 
Faith  which  has  expressed  itself  in  action  is  not 
content  to  remain  the  same  but  when  a  second 
opportunity  is  presented  it  can  make  itself  felt  in 
stronger  terms;  it  has  grown.  Faith  is  exercised 
and  made  stronger  by  casting  its  light  on  the  path- 
way before  one  and  thereby  influencing  action.  An 
ideal  is  an  objective  toward  which  we  try  to  move 
but  faith  is  the  light  which  not  only  enables  us  to 
see  the  ups  and  downs  of  the  path  but  also  gives 
strength  and  confidence  to  our  step.  It  is  an 
ever-present  friend  whose  encouragement  is  al- 
ways with  us.    Without  this  companion,  we  would 


Psychology  of  Faith  83 

be  weak  and  helpless.  Faith  Is  necessary  if  con- 
sistency of  action  is  to  be  maintained  and  faith 
must  make  itself  felt  in  the  world  of  action,  if  it 
is  to  live. 


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